ROMANO-BRITISH 

 LEICESTERSHIRE 



IT is, perhaps, needless to say that the division of the country known as 

 Leicestershire had no existence during the Romano-British period. 1 

 At the time of the Roman invasion probably the whole of this district 

 was inhabited by the Coritani, a British tribe whose chief towns we 

 learn from Ptolemy, writing about A.D. 120, were Lincoln (Lindutri) and 

 Leicester (Rbage or Ratae)* The boundaries of the land occupied by this 

 tribe are uncertain, but their territory probably extended into the counties of 

 Lincoln, Northampton, Leicester, Rutland, Nottingham, and Derby. 



The Roman occupation under the Emperor Claudius began in A.D. 43 ; 

 at first the subjugation of the country was comparatively easy. A strong 

 foothold was obtained in Kent and Essex, and then the army was formed into 

 three divisions, the Second Legion going south-west towards Somerset and 

 Devon, the Fourteenth and Twentieth Legions north-west towards Shrews- 

 bury and Chester, and the Ninth Legion north towards Lincoln. 3 Possibly 

 some evidence of the presence of the Ninth Legion may be traced at Leicester, 

 as will be noted hereafter. By A.D. 47 or 48 the whole of the eastern part 

 of Britain up to the Humber, including the district now known as Leicester- 

 shire, was occupied ; and in A.D. 48, or shortly afterwards, the subjugation 

 of the more hilly country northwards began, which latter enterprise, however, 

 does not concern our present inquiry. 



Professor Haverfield divides Britain into two districts; 4 the eastern, 

 southern, and south-western district or the lowlands he describes as civilian, 

 whilst the northern and western district or the uplands he describes as 

 military. Leicestershire falls within the former category, and was a part of 

 the midland area which may be termed undistinguished. With the excep- 

 tion of Leicester it contained no great town. The villas in the county 

 are few, its mineral wealth was unknown to the Romans, and on the whole 

 it was not so well suited for agriculture and pasture as other parts of the 

 country. It was wanting in that marked Romano-British life which was to 

 be found in the surrounding district, such as at Colchester, Verulam, Sil- 

 chester, Gloucester, Wroxeter, and elsewhere. It is clear that Leicestershire 

 showed the peaceful and simple characteristics of the rest of the midlands, 

 and the population must have been sparse. Probably the western side was 



1 Much of the information contained in this article has been taken from Professor Haverfield's contri- 

 butions to the History of Roman Britain in the volumes of this series. 



8 Ptolemy, Geographia, i, 99 (ed. Firmin-Didot, 1883). 3 V.C.H. Northants, i, 215. 



4 V.C.H. Derb. \, 192. 



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