ROMANO-BRITISH 

 NORFOLK' 



I. Introductory Sketch. 2. The Iceni, Icknield Street. 3. Places of settled occupation, 

 town or village : the two Caisters. 4. Villas and Rural Dwellings. 5. Roads. 

 6. Military Posts : Brancaster. 7. Miscellaneous. 8. Alphabetical list of sites in 

 Norfolk where Roman Remains have been found. 



I. Introductory Sketch 



FROM the Briton we pass to the Roman, from the prehistoric to 

 the verge of history. With the Roman conquest our island began 

 to be one of the countries known to us historically, and some at 

 least of the persons who lived in it, and the events which occurred 

 in it, have been definitely recorded in literature. Nevertheless Roman 

 Britain has no history of its own ; for no country or person or thing can 

 have a history unless it also possesses or has possessed a definite in- 

 dividuality which has existed continuously for some perceptible period 

 of time. It is not enough that the man or thing should have existed 

 during a period known to us from history : there must have been, in 

 some way or other, an independent existence and an independent unit. 

 But Britain under the rule of the Roman Empire was merely one pro- 

 vince, and in general an unimportant province, of a vast and complex 

 state which stretched over three continents from the shores of ocean to 

 the sands of the eastern seas. It had, indeed, marked characteristics of 

 its own and striking incidents took place within it, and we can describe 

 both of these in a more or less connected sketch ; but, in the full and 

 real sense of the phrase, we cannot write a history of it. 



If this is true of Roman Britain as a whole, it is still more true of 

 the part of it with which we are now concerned, the area which to-day 

 is known as Norfolk. For in Roman days our island was not divided 

 into the present counties nor into any districts geographically coincident 

 with them. Neither the boundaries of the Celtic tribes, nor those of 

 the Roman administrative areas, so far as we know them, agree with our 

 existing county boundaries. He who studies the Roman remains that 



* For the following article I have searched most of the literature myself and, so far as I could, 

 have visited the chief museums and sites. I have to thank various helpers, especially Sir John Evans, 

 Mr. C. H. Read, Prof Rhys, Mr. Arthur Smith, Mr. W. H. Stevenson, Dr. Jessop, Mr. E. M. Beloe and 

 others. I have also to acknowledge my obligations to an article on Roman Norfolk by Mr. G. E. Fox, 

 published in the Arcbaolo^cal Journal for 1889 (xlvi. 331-349). Though sometimes differing from 

 Mr. Fox in my conclusions, I have benefited by his work in many points, which I have tried to in- 

 dicate in detail. I have also consulted with profit the Dawson Turner drawings in the British Museum 

 (MSS. Add. 23,013-23,062). 



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