A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



and one might more properly compare them to the railways of the pre- 

 sent day, which equally radiate from London. 



Such was Roman Britain, so far as it was not military — a land of 

 small country towns and large rural estates ; permeated by the ordinary 

 forms of Roman civilization, though lacking its higher developments ; 

 not devoid of mineral and agricultural resources, but certainly not rich ; 

 a comfortable land, perhaps, but not a very important part of the Empire. 

 With this general character of the province, or at least of its southern 

 half, we have now to compare the details of Roman Norfolk. The 

 comparison will both illustrate some points in the preceding sketch of 

 the Roman province, and will at the same time show the proper value 

 and significance of the remains discovered in the county of Norfolk. 

 Let us anticipate summarily the result. We shall find, to begin with, 

 that our attention is drawn to a special Celtic tribe within whose terri- 

 tory Norfolk originally lay. When we pass to the character of the coun- 

 try under the Roman occupation proper, our survey will reveal to us a 

 district somewhat empty of remains, but in general resembling otherwise 

 the rest of southern, non-military Britain. There was probably one 

 country town, and perhaps one or two other sites may have been occu- 

 pied by villages. There were a few ' villas,' and doubtless therefore 

 some agriculture, but no other industry of importance nor any note- 

 worthy trade route.' There was lastly one fort, in the north-west corner 

 of the county, one of the very few Roman forts in southern Britain, and 

 one which is assignable to a definite period. It is a brief record. Many 

 parts of the county, its great heaths and sandy wastes and low-lying 

 marshes, must have been very thinly inhabited, if inhabited at all. One 

 great historical event may have added to the desolation. And the parts 

 which were actually inhabited during the Roman period have been, 

 perhaps, inadequately explored. We shall leave many blank spaces in 

 our survey, because there were blank spaces in the land during Roman 

 times. We shall leave many points unsettled because our present evidence 

 is insufficient. Excavation, in particular, has been seldom attempted in 

 Norfolk, and the absence of this important aid will be sadly perceptible 

 to anyone who examines in detail the Roman antiquities of the county. 



2. The Iceni 



On the threshold of this detailed survey, we are arrested- by the 

 name and story of the Celtic tribe which inhabited the district at the 

 date of the Roman conquest. The boundaries of Norfolk, as we have 

 said above, do not coincide with any Celtic boundaries known to us, but 

 the county lies wholly inside the territory of one tribe, the Iceni, and 

 the Iceni are so closely connected, both in fact and fiction, with the 

 eastern counties that we cannot begin without some account of them. 



The Iceni dwelt in Norfolk : probably they also held most of 

 Suffolk and perhaps some part of Cambridgeshire. We seem first to 

 hear of them in Cssar's ' Gallic War ' under the name of Cenimagni. 



* The rude ironworkings near Beeston (see Index) may be of Roman date, but are unimportant. 



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