A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



the midland districts, the west and centre of Northamptonshire, should 

 have possessed a less richly developed civilization than many other parts 

 of the Roman province. 



2. Towns of Romano-British Northamptonshire 



(a) castor 



The most interesting and the most important of these towns is 

 in the east of the county, but it does not lie wholly within it. The 

 remains discovered at Castor on the north bank of the Nene, four miles 

 west from Peterborough, form only part of a larger whole which 

 stretches out south of the river and belongs no less to Huntingdonshire 

 than to Northamptonshire. Here as elsewhere the student of Roman 

 Britain must ignore the territorial divisions of later England. For our 

 present purpose it is a mere accident that the Nene at Castor separates 

 two English shires. The remains on its north bank cannot be sundered 

 from those on its south bank : the two together constitute one extensive 

 straggling settlement. 



The Roman name of this settlement is generally and confidently 

 asserted to be Durobrivae. That was the view of Camden, and it has 

 been the dominant view, if not the universal view, ever since. Probably 

 it is also the true view. But the arguments adducible in its favour are 

 in reality very unsatisfactory and demand some examination. They rest 

 on two pieces of evidence, (i.) one supplied by the Antonine Itinerary 

 and (ii.) the other by an old English appellation of Castor. 



(i.) The Itinerary mentions a route from London by way of Col- 

 chester and Lincoln to the north, and inserts as ' stations ' between 

 Colchester and Lincoln the following : Villa Faustini, Icini (or Iciani), 

 Camboritum, Durolipons, Durobrivae and Causennae.' The determina- 

 tion of these places and of the route connecting them is a well known 

 problem in Romano-British topography. We should expect the route 

 to run north-west from Colchester and then skirt the Fens by way of 

 Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough. But no Roman road can 

 be traced issuing from Colchester in the direction of Cambridge ; none 

 of the Roman names are otherwise known to us, and the mileage of the 

 Itinerary is irreconcilable with any reasonable identifications of them. 

 If however we start in the north we can trace a road running south 

 from Lincoln and passing Roman sites at Ancaster, Castor and Godman- 

 chester near Huntingdon. Its further course is complicated and obscure ; 

 but so far it may well represent the Itinerary route, and the Roman 

 sites along it may be the Itinerary ' stations.' That is to say, Ancaster 

 may be Causennae and Durobrivae may be Castor. Certainly this road 



1 ///». Ant. 474, 475; Ravennas, 429, 12-7, probably names some of these stations, but with 

 very distorted orthography. Some of the places (e.g. Villa Faustini and Icini) may belong to a branch 

 route (see Victoria History ofNorfolk, i. 300). It used to be thought that the similarity of names fixed 

 Camboritum at Cambridge and thus gave us a definite point on the route. Mr. Skeat has however 

 shown that the names Cam and Cambridge are comparatively modern and for our purpose useless 

 {Placnama 0/ Cambridgeshire, p. 30). 



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