North E.ast 



s 



ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK 



of the late third or the fourth century, and Spelman mentions two bronze 

 vases found with coins, possibly a hoard/ 



Beyond the fact that it was one of the forts of the Saxon Shore in 

 the fourth century, the history of the place is quite unknown. The 

 square or nearly square shape and the rounded angles of the fort have 

 been adduced to prove that it was first erected in the early part of the 

 Roman occupation, and they are not inconsistent with that notion, though 

 they assuredly do not prove it. The recorded coins, were they more 

 numerous, might also indicate 

 that the site was early occu- 

 pied, if not fortified. It were 

 easy to conjecture that the fort 

 and the Peddar's Way were 

 alike constructed after the in- 

 surrection of A.D. 6 1 to hold 

 the district down. On the 

 other hand the bastions attri- 

 buted to the east gate would 

 probably be fourth-century 

 work. We require excava- 

 tion, as so often in Norfolk : 

 till the spade helps us, we can Pavcmcnt 

 hardly do more than affirm /"u-^tJ-i 

 that here in the fourth century 

 stood a fort. 



The next fort of the 

 Saxon Shore in geographical 

 order is Gariannonum, Burgh 

 Castle near Yarmouth, warder of the waterways which the Waveney 

 and the Yare open into the heart of the eastern counties. It is itself 

 in Suffolk, and we need not describe here its massive and stately ruins. 

 But detached forts in connection with it have been supposed 

 at two sites in Norfolk — Caister-by- Yarmouth and Reedham 

 on the Yare, and a word is due to them in this context. 

 Neither place, so far as the present writer can judge, deserves 

 on the evidence of recorded discoveries to be called a military 

 site. At Caister many Roman remains have been found, but 

 no trace of fortifications (see p. 293). At Reedham there are said to 

 have been earthworks once, but no record of their character survives, 

 and earthworks, of whatever character, can hardly be connected with 

 the fourth century. Besides, the Roman coins found at Reedham 



I Camden (ed. Gough, 1 806) ii. 1 79, 1 97 ; Spelman's Icenia {Posthumous Works, p. 1 48) ; Blomefield, 

 X. 298 ; Archaologia, xii. 134, xxiii. 361 ; Norwich vol. of the Arch. Institute, pp. 9-16 ; Journal of the 

 British Arch. Association, xxxvi. 1 1 5 and Corpus Inscriftionum Latin., vii. 1,307 (inscribed ring) ; C. Roach 

 Smith, Collectanea antiqua, vii. 159 ; Dawson Turner, MS. 23,026, p. 104 (Mercury and coins of Pius, 

 Carausius and Chlorus, found 1 806). A few objects of no great importance are in the Norwich Museum. 

 What the ' copper-gilt ensign ' found in 1763 may be (Gentleman's Magazine (1779), ii. 591) I do 

 not know. Wisbech Museum has seven ' Third Brass ' of Carausius from Brancaster. 



ScAUE. or hLcT 



Tlit 



Frc. 19. 



Fig. 20. 



