128 ROMAN WAREHAN AND THE CLAUDIAN INVASION. 



of artillery of to-day ; while it would be completely out of place 

 and meaningless in the army of the Rhine. 



To return, then, to the army of 43 of the Second, Fourteenth, 

 and Twentieth legions it is clear from the fact, now established, of 

 Gloucester being walled before either Colchester or London, that it 

 was intended to be the first place secured : the key of the Severn. 

 A glance at the map will show that Wareham is the nearest point 

 to which a fleet could come on the south coast, having Gloucester 

 for its aim. The latter town is in a line due north from Wareham. 



This perfectly agrees with the account in Dion Cassius of the 

 garrison left among the Boduni (Cirencester) and of the great 

 battle fought for two days on the banks of a large river.* 



That the first campaign was not on the east coast and the banks 

 of the Thames, as suggested by Dr. Mommsen, is so clear from 

 Dion Cassius that Mommsen is obliged to assume the text of the 

 historian to be " corrupt." It is also clear from the entire absence 

 over the district in question of any great fortifications, such as an 

 army invading the island must have constructed, and which we 

 find on such a scale at Wareham, where the camp walls are fifty 

 feet in depth. 



But the three legions landing at separate points must have had 

 a common centre to rally to. Where would this be *? Most 

 probably on Salisbury Plain, near Old Sarum. Now if we turn to 

 the Ordance Map of Dorset we find a road running straight from 

 Old Sarum to Badbury Rings, and if ice prolong the line it brings 

 us directly to the North Port of Wareham. The name of this 

 road, the Adding Dyke, is perfectly clear, for the word dyke is the 

 equivalent .of the Welsh Clawdd, which also means a banked-up 

 road. Its original meaning (like that of the words dyke and 

 vallum), is that of a cutting or ditch : 'and in all three cases the 

 words came to mean the bank thrown up from the ditch Vallum 



* If Dion Cassius had intended the Thames by this river he would have 

 said so, for he speaks twice in another part of the narrative of the 

 Thames by name. But he did not know the name of the river Vespasian 

 ordered his men to swim. It is plainly enough the Severn, the only 

 " large" river near the Boduni who are mentioned in the same connection. 



