ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



easy they may well have brought down worked stones from our dis- 

 trict/ 



The detailed survey which the last paragraph concluded has prob- 

 ably made clear the character of the Romano-British life which existed 

 in this district. Castor has been styled by some writers a ' municipium' 

 and a legionary fortress ; others consider the Castles a smaller fort for 

 the garrison of the town. But there is no trace at either spot, or any- 

 where in the vicinity, of municipal institutions or of military occupa- 

 tion, not even of the smallest garrison. Here we may rather think that 

 the Roman and British civilizations meet. The Roman civilization 

 centred in its towns ; the Celt was a dweller in the country and learnt 

 town life chiefly from his conqueror. On the banks of the Nene in the 

 neighbourhood which we have been surveying we see the Celtic country 

 life condensing into a town. At two spots, at Castor and at the Castles, 

 the houses were dense enough for the life of a town, and at the Castles 

 they stood within a wall. But they were planted, many of them, in 

 irregular fashion, not ranged along straight streets nor all facing one 

 way, and they were surrounded by extensive suburbs which were very 

 far from resembling the arrangements of an Italian town. We do not 

 yet know whether in any part there were actual streets like those of 

 Silchester, and we cannot as yet decide what precise stage in the develop- 

 ment towards town life we have before us. But the general character 

 of the site is plain. It was an extensive straggling settlement, half town, 

 half country, that was no longer country and not yet perfectly town.^ 

 But even without this interesting feature the site would be one of con- 

 siderable importance. The number of the buildings, the comfort of 

 their fittings — mosaics, painted stucco, marble wall-linings — the extent 

 of the potting industry to be described below, all testify to this ; and 

 while in a special sense we may say that Castor and the Castles do not 

 form a full-grown town, in more general language we may class them as 

 one of the more considerable town-centres in Roman Britain. Certainly 

 they far surpass the sites which we shall mention further on in this 

 article. Neither Towcester nor Norton nor even Irchester can rank 

 with the remains near Castor. 



The evidence of coins indicates that the district was inhabited 

 perhaps in British and certainly in early Roman times and throughout 

 the Roman period, and we may safely assume that Roman influences 

 early affected it. Its most important part was probably Castor. A 

 milestone discovered outside the north gate of 'the Castles' (p. 170) 

 marks the end of the first mile from some caput vice, and this caput can 

 only be Castor, which is just a mile away. Whether the precise spot 

 whence the mileage started was among the buildings round Castor 



* Journal of the British Archteolopcol Association, xli. 419, 1. 51 ; Assodatei Anhit. Societies' Reports, 

 xvli. (1884), 281 ; 'Northamptonshire Notes and Queries, iii. 179, 495. For the inscription in p.irticuLir 

 see Ephemeris, vii. 842 ; A rchieological Journal, xlvii. 239, xlix. 187 ; Ankaohgical Revietv, iii. 136 ; Anti- 

 quary, xix. 76 (inaccurate). I have seen the stone and had a squeeze from Mr. J. T. Irvine, the finder. 

 The material, I am told, is Barnack r.ig. 



* Compare Westdeutsche Zeitschti/t, xix. 58. 



177 



