A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



of some dwelling not far froni the spot where they were found. These 

 objects are now deposited in the museum at Bury St. Edmunds. 



The last of the more notable finds which we need name here was that of 

 a whole service of pewter vessels, dug up at Icklingham ** in 1839, remark- 

 able from the fact that the discovery helped to swell a list of similar finds ia 

 the eastern counties already larger than can be made out in any other district 

 in England. The pieces of this set are well preserved, the larger proportion 

 taking the form of shallow paterae. They are now in the British Museum. 



Roads 



It is needless here to give any account of the authorities concerning the 

 Roman roads in Britain. It suffices to name the principal one and that most 

 relied upon, namely the Antonine Itinerary, which is a road book of the 

 Roman empire, whose compilation is variously dated from 200 a.d. to early 

 in the 4th century. The portion of this book relating to Britain is divided 

 into fifteen sections or ' Iters,' showing in each the route between the stations 

 which begin and end the Iter. 



For Iter V, running from London through Colchester and Lincoln 

 to Carlisle, no satisfactory course has been made out through Suffolk. 

 The direction is uncertain and no sites have yet been identified with any 

 certainty. All that can be said is that Villa Faustini and Icinos must have 

 been somewhere within the county. 



Iter IX, which passes from Caister St. Edmunds in Norfolk to London, 

 is less hopeless, and affiDrds room for probable conjecture, but with this there 

 are difficulties. For instance, the distance between Colchester (Camolu- 

 dunum) and Caister St. Edmunds (Venta Icinorum) is given as 75 Roman 

 miles instead of 55 miles, which it would be by a direct route.*^ The posi- 

 tions of the intermediate stations (Combretonium and Sitomagus) are also 

 vague. To account for the discrepancy in the distances named it is supposed 

 that the road was deflected either eastward or westward. Camden imagined 

 that it ran the westward course by Brettenham and Thetford though without 

 any valid reason. The late Dr. Raven preferred an eastern deflection. The 

 stations on Iter IX from London to Colchester are fairly well determined, 

 even as far as Stratford St. Mary (supposed to be Ad Ansam of the Itinerary), 

 where the road coming north from Colchester crosses the Stour. It has 

 been traced beyond this, going northward and so faintly onward, till just 

 beyond the little River Gipping it is again clearly discoverable. From here- 

 abouts begins the deflection by which it is supposed to pass Burgh, near 

 Woodbridge (possibly Combretonium), and thence onwards by Stratford 

 St. Andrew, Saxmundham, and Kelsale to Dunwich, which may be the 

 Sitomagus of the Itinerary. From this point all is clear. The road passes 

 in a north-westerly direction, over the River Blyth, by Halesworth, past 

 Mettingham Castle to a ford at Wangford over the Waveney, and so onwards 

 to Venta Icinorum, thus completing the Iter." A recent writer on Roman 

 roads in Britain lays down another route for the section between the Gipping 



M 



Arch. 1842, xxix, App. 389. " T. Codrington, Roman Roads in Britain, 228-9. 



" Rev. J. J. Raven, D.D., Hin. ofSuff. iii, 28 ct seq. 



7.08 



