ROMANO-BRITISH 

 NOTTINGHAMSHIRE' 



A T the time of the Roman invasion of Britain the whole, or at least 

 /% the larger part, of the district now known as Nottinghamshire 

 / % appears to have been inhabited by the Coritani, a British tribe who 

 also occupied the adjoining country on the east, south, and west, 

 and whose chief towns were Lincoln (Lindum), and Leicester (Ratae).* In 

 giving an account of the civilization of this district in the Roman period we 

 do not pretend to write a history of it. Not only is our knowledge 

 insufficient, but the very nature of the subject forbids us. Just as the whole 

 of Roman Britain ' was not an independent unit but part of a vast and 

 complex Empire,' * so (and still more really) Roman Nottinghamshire was 

 not an independent unit, but a part of Roman Britain. It was not even 

 recognized by the Romans as a distinct division of the country. Thus it is 

 that no consecutive historical account of the region during this period is 

 possible, and that to speak of ' Roman Nottinghamshire,' though undeniably 

 convenient, especially for the purposes of this work, is strictly a contradiction 

 in terms. All that can be done is to show from existing evidence — which is 

 almost entirely archaeological in character — how far a particular district 

 illustrates the general character of Roman Britain. 



From the invasion by the Emperor Claudius in a.d. 43 the spread of 

 Roman conquest went on at first steadily, and indeed rapidly. By a.d. 47 

 the whole of the eastern part of Britain up to the Humber, including the 

 district now known as Nottinghamshire, was probably occupied ; and after- 

 wards the troops were moved on to begin the subjugation of the more hilly 

 country to the north and west. Professor Haverfield has shown that the 

 whole of Britain may be divided into two marked portions : the eastern, 

 southern, and south-western districts, corresponding generally with the low- 

 lands, and the northern and western, corresponding with the hill country. 

 These he describes respectively as civilian and military. The border-line 

 may be drawn roughly along the line of Watling Street and Ryknield Street 

 from Wroxeter to Chesterfield, and so on to York.* Thus Nottinghamshire,, 

 though close to the hills, falls into the lowland or civilian section. 



' In this introductory section much use has been made of Professor Haverfield's articles on Roman 

 Derbyshire and Warwickshire in other volumes of the series. For the whole article, general acknowledgements. 

 for help and information must be made to Mr. T. Cecil S. WooUey, the Rev. A. du Boulay Hill and others ;, 

 also to Mr. Watkin's articles on Roman Nottinghamshire in Jrci. Joum. xliii, and the Nottingham Daily 

 Guardian, 1877. 



* Ptolemy, Geographia, \, 99 (ed. Firmin Didot, 1883). 



' V.C.H. Warw. i, 223. * V.C.H. Derb. i, 192. 



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