— 412 — 



racum. Commentators are not agreed as to how the 

 name was changed to York. In Domesday Book it is 

 written Euerwic ; this is supposed te mean a town on 

 the Ure, which name the river Ouse bears at its upper 

 part. Worsae says, the Britons called York, Eabkroic ; 

 the Anglo-Saxons, Eoforwic, and the Danes, Jorvik : 

 which seems to furnish the derivation of York. York 

 for centuries was a flourishing Eoman city, and the 

 foundation of Eoman York probably dates from the 

 year 79, when Agricola by the subjugation of the Bri- 

 gantes, completed the conquest of the northern part of 

 Britain. "This illustrious commander, we are told, 

 made this city one of the chief stations on his line of 

 march to the north, where he commenced building the 

 chain of forts, afterwards completed by Hadrian, and 

 called the Picts Wall. In A. D. 140, when the wall of 

 Antinonus was built, Ptolemy mentions Eboracum, as 

 being the head-quarters of the sixth legion.-^" Legio 

 Sexta Victrix " — traces of whose occupation and resid- 

 ence in the city are found continuing during a period of 

 three centuries. In A. D. 280, Severus, then Emperor, 

 arrived at Eboracum, accompanied by his sons Cara- 

 calla and Geta, to repel the incursions of the Caledo- 

 nians. 



The latter was left in York (then, probably, the chief 

 city of the whole province of Britain) to administer 

 justice, aided by Papinianus, one of the ablest lawyers 

 of ancient Eome. Severus, after his return from a cam- 

 paign against the Picts, died in York on February 4th, 

 A. D. 210. This period was perhaps, the time of its 

 greatest splendor. Eboracum was at that period distin- 

 guished by the presence of the three most learned jurists 

 in the Eoman Empire : Ulpianus, Paulus, aud the more 

 celebrated Papinianus, the Papinian Prefect, who was 

 afterwards put to death in Eome for refusing to pro- 

 nounce an oration exculpating Caracalla from blame 

 for the murder of his brother Geta. The imperial palace 

 is supposed to have occupied the site, commencing near 



