202 



On the Roman Conquest of Southern Britain. 



only sixteen days. The question of his presence at the capture of 

 Camalpdunum is not of much importance. Dio asserts it, Suetonius 

 seems to deny it. " Sine ullo praelio aut sanguine intra paucissimos 

 dies parte insulae in deditionem recepta sexto quam profectus erat 

 mense Romam rediit" (de Claudio,c. 17). This would agree better 

 with the presence of Claudius in the quiet district of the Belgse, 

 Atrebates, and Regni, than amongst the Trinobantes, but both may 

 be true. 



The first permanent results of the conquest were, it would seem, 

 the establishment of the colony of veterans at Glevum (Gloucester) 

 on the west, which we may suppose to have been the first home of 

 the Ilnd Legion, afterwards so long stationed at Caerleon, and of 

 the colony of Camalodunum, with its temple of the divine Claudius, 

 which was probably the first home of the XlVth Legion — a force 

 which we may remark was withdrawn in the year 70, and has 

 therefore left few traces in the island. Hiibner suggests that the 

 first quarters of the IXth Hispana were at Calleva (p. 24), and 

 those of the IVth at Cirencester or Bath (p. 25), but these con- 

 jectures, though plausible, are not established. 



For us, however, the conclusion is clear that our county was almost 

 outside the sphere of warlike operations, while it had nothing in 

 the way either of mineral wealth or of other natural attractions, 

 like those possessed by Bath, to draw to it any confluence of Roman 

 settlers. With the exception, therefore, of the roads necessary to 

 connect the main stations together and the villas adjacent to them, 

 the Romans left little mark among us. Had the Belgse been a 

 strong and hostile race and Sorbiodunum required the presence of a 

 legion, either New Sarum would have been founded much sooner, 

 or Wilton or Stratford-sub-Castle would have grown up into greater 

 prominence. Probably, the keen instinct for sites possessed by the 

 Roman generals would have marked out the meeting-place of so 

 many valleys and streams as those we have at Salisbury as the 

 fitting site for a colony of veterans long before the end of the first 

 century, while the old city would have been crowned with buildings 

 of solid stone, including, perhaps, a beautiful acqueduct spanning 

 the Avon valley. But, as it was, the quiet, separative, secretive 



