80 PAP&RS, ETC. 



or colonial, afterwards. Of these Camalodunum was the 

 first, and not Aqu£e Solls, or Bath, 



Camalodunum was made a Koman colony, A.D. 52, 

 having been established by Ostorius, one of the generale 

 of the Emperor Claudius. The late Rev. John Skinner 

 has written a very able treatise, in the form of a letter, 

 which is published in Phelps's History of Somerset, vol. 

 II., in which he argues with much learning and ingenuity, 

 and, I must add, with great appearance of truth, that the 

 site of the ancient Camalodunum was neither Colchester 

 nor Maiden, in Essex, as Leland and Camden suppose, but 

 Camerton, in Somersetshire, not far from Bath. 



In this spot, which had been previously occupied by the 

 Kings of the Belgae, as the capital of the district, Ostorius 

 established a strong colony of veterans. From this point 

 he marched to the conquest of the Silures, who were a bold 

 intractable race, inhabiting South Wales. The position 

 of Camerton suits better for such an enterj^rize than Col- 

 chester or Maiden. Both these places, as Mr. Skinner 

 observes, were situated beyond the bounds of the Roman 

 province, and far away from the Severn and Avon rivers, 

 and the scene of the subsequent Operations of Ostorius. 

 We read in Tacitus that he established a line of fortified 

 camps along these rivers, as a curb agalnst the irruptions of 

 the Silures. Pliny asserts that Camalodunum was distant 

 200 mUes from Mona, or Anglesea, which Ostorius was 

 preparing to attack when the news of the insurrection of 

 the Britons, under Boadlcea, obliged him to desist. Now 

 Colchester and Maiden are distant from Anglesea more 

 than 320 miles. Before the Romans settled in Britain, 

 there were forts to guard the passes of the Avon. Ostorius 

 found all these boundary camps established, which ren- 



