ON EXCAVATIONS ON ROMAN SITES IN BRITAIN. 207 



viorum, and was probably the chief town of that tribe which inhabited 

 a district including both Wroxeter and Chester. 



That the site was inhabited soon after the invasion under Claudius 

 in 43 A.D. is evident. Coins and other objects of pre-Flavian date have 

 been met with in some quantities, and there are tombstones of soldiers 

 of the XIV. legion from the cemetery. This legion came over with 

 Claudius and left Britain for good in the year 70 a.d. Wroxeter, situated 

 on the edge of the Welsh hills and protected from attack on that side 

 by the Eiver Severn, would have formed an admirable base for opera- 

 tions against the turbulent tribes of Wales, and it is more than likely 

 that it was used as such in the campaigns undertaken by Ostorius 

 Scapula in 50 a.d. and by Suetonius Paulinus in 60 a.d. 



The Welsh tribes v/ere finally subdued before the end of the reign of 

 Vespasian, and, the country becoming more settled, Wroxeter appears 

 to have ceased to be a military centre and to have grown into a- large 

 and prosperous town. It is in this period, namely the last quarter of 

 the first century a.d., that the occupation began on the part of the 

 site recently excavated. Very little of the earlier buildings remained, as 

 they all appear to have been built of wood and wattle-and-daub. In 

 the second century more substantial houses were erected, and in the 

 course of the excavations the following buildings were uncovered. 

 In 1912 four long shops with rooms at the back and open fronts 

 with porticos on the street. In 1913 a temple which must 

 have been of some architectural pretensions and contained life- 

 size statues, of which several fragments were discovered. In 

 1914 a large dwelhng-house consisting of a number of rooms 

 with a large portico on the street and a small bath-house at the 

 south side. The porticos of all these buildings formed a continuous 

 colonnade by the side of the street. At the back of the large dwelling- 

 house another structure was discovered. Unfortunately, it could not 

 be entirely explored, as its west part was beyond the reserved area. 

 It consisted of two parallel walls, 13 feet apart, which enclosed, an 

 oblong space with rounded corners, 144 feet wide and 188 feet long, 

 to the furthest point excavated. No other building of this form appears 

 to have been found elsewhere, and it is difficult to say for what purpose 

 it was used, especially as part of it is still unexcavated. It is possible, 

 however, that it may have been a place of amusement for games, bull- 

 baiting, &c., and that the two parallel walls held tiers of wooden seats. 



The buildings tha.t faced the street had been altered and rebuilt 

 several times, the mixed soil being as deep as 8 feet to 10 feet in places, 

 making the work of excavation very slow and laborious. For instance, 

 in 1914 there was evidence of at least four different periods of buildings* 

 on the same site. In the early period there were wood and wattle- 

 and-daub houses. Over the remains of these in the first half of the 

 second century three long buildings with open fronts or porticos 

 similar to those found in 1912 were erected. About the middle of the 

 second century these three buildings were incorporated in one large 

 house with corridors, two courtyards, many rooms, some with 

 mosaic floors, and others fitted with hypocausts. A bath-house with 

 cold baths and hot rooms was situated at the south-west corner. At a 



