A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



family as well as a part of his private wealth. He did not succeed : the 

 Roman government stepped in and annexed his kingdom, while its 

 officials emphasized the loss of freedom by acts of avarice, bad faith and 

 brutaHty against Boudicca (Boadicea), the widow of Prasutagus, her 

 daughters and the Icenian nobles. The governor of the province was, 

 at the moment or soon after, absent fighting in North Wales : the Iceni 

 rose, Boudicca at their head, and with them rose half southern Britain. 

 A Roman army, three Roman towns, some seventy thousand lives were 

 devoured by the flame of their fury : then the governor, hurrying back 

 from Wales, routed the Britons in one great fight. The conquered 

 were savagely hunted down, till severity defeated its own object and even 

 Romans protested. Fire and the sword and famine went through the 

 lands of the insurgents, and it may well be that this devastation helped to 

 produce that infrequency of Romano-British Hfe which characterized the 

 Icenian districts in later days. Certainly we hear no more of the Iceni. 

 They and their territory were merged in the Roman province, and even 

 their name lingered only round one or perhaps two spots. It served to 

 distinguish Venta Icenorum from Venta Belgarum in Hampshire and 

 Venta Silurum in Monmouth. It may also lurk concealed in the 

 ' Icinos ' or ' Icianos ' — the former is read by the better manuscripts — 

 which the Itinerary places fifty-five miles from Colchester on the way to 

 Lincoln. Unfortunately the route of the Itinerary is in this case obscure. 

 ' Icinos ' has been plausibly identified with such diverse sites as Venta 

 Icenorum in Norfolk, Stow Langtoft and Ixworth in Suffolk, Chesterford 

 in Essex, and for the present conjectures about it may be best withheld. 

 Thus much may be said, that, if ' Icinos ' is a corruption of ' Icenos,' 

 we can easiest explain the name, as a mere name, by taking it to be the 

 accusative of ' Iceni ' and an abbreviation of ' Venta Icenorum ' (see p. 300) . 

 It could not, I think, be explained as equivalent to ' Fines Icenorum.' 



Antiquaries have found, however, a more famous survival of the 

 name. There is an ancient track or road now known as Icknield Street, 

 but called in early charters Icenhylt or Icenhilde weg (or strset). This 

 road has been classed as a principal Roman road : its course has been 

 imagined to reach from western Berkshire to Norwich, and its name has 

 been explained as the ' warpath ' or highway of the Iceni. Places on 

 or near its assumed line, IckHngham in Suffolk, Ickleton in Cambridge- 

 shire, and Ickleford in Hertfordshire, have been enlisted to support this 

 etymology : they were, according to one theory, originally Iceningham, 

 Icenton, Icenford, and indicate that Iceni once dwelt or marched in their 

 neighbourhood. So far as our present evidence goes, this is all baseless 

 guesswork. The Icknield Street, in the first instance, is not a Roman 

 road : only a few parts of its assumed course connect Roman sites to- 

 gether. And, secondly, it has nothing to do with the Iceni or Norfolk 

 or Suffolk. Its western section can alone be traced with real certainty : 

 there it is a trackway of immemorial origin, passing along the almost 

 continuous scarp formed by the north face of the Berkshire downs and 

 the Chilterns. Further east, its course and indeed its existence is more 



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