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[German version] [1] Artificially extended harbour complex near Ostia This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre An artificial harbour complex, created under the emperor Claudius (AD 41-54) to extend the harbour of Ostia (with plan) and enlarged under Trajan (AD 98-117), c. 3 km northwest of Ostia. The Claudian harbour basin ( c. 80 hectares) was protected from the sea by a mole structure (but not actually safe; in AD 62 almost 200 ships went down in a storm: Tac. Ann. 15,18) and marked by a lighthouse (cf. plan: 1) (according to Suet. C…

[German version] One of the main forts of the Roman occupation of North Wales [1], modern Caernarfon at the southwestern end of the Menai Strait. The first building phase dates from the governorship of Iulius [II 3] Agricola ( c. 77/8 AD). The living quarters exhibit at least three building phases from the early 2nd century AD onwards. Rebuilding in stone took place under Hadrianus (117-138). The 2nd cent. garrison was evidently small. One of the main buildings from the Antonine period was probably the officium of a procurator [2]. After being destroyed and rebuilt the fort was he…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Christianity | | Coloniae | Commerce | Legio | Limes | Limes | Pertinax | Rome | Rome | Britannia (Today York). With its strategically favourable location in the heart of the Vale of York, E. presented itself to the Romans as a base for their military control of northern Britannia. The earliest garrison was stationed in E. under Q. Petilius Cerealis in AD 71/74 [1]. The legionary camp ( legio IX Hispana) was a wood-earth fort of the 70s; the reconstruction in stone took place in the early 2nd cent. The legio VI Victrix replaced the legio I…

[German version] (Οὐιροκόνιον/ Ouirokónion). Roman legionary camp, in c. AD 55 laid out in connection with military operations in the valley of the upper Sabrina (modern Severn) [1. 292 f.]; modern Wroxeter in Shropshire, England. Abandoned in c. AD 74, as late as the end of the 1st cent., V. developed into the capital of the civitas Cornoviorum [2]. In AD 128/9, The city acquired a forum [1. 288] and, no later than the middle of the 2nd cent., thermal baths [3]. Numerous private houses were built from the 2nd cent. onwards. In the 4th cent., the …

[German version] ‘Ford on the river bend’ (It. Ant. 474,7), presumably modern Icklingham (Suffolk) [1. 294]. Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography 1 A. L. F. Rivet, C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain, 1979.

A. Military camp [German version] [I 1] General The Roman soldiers always made sure that they were protected by fortifications. This also applied when they only stopped for a night on campaigns. In the evening of their arrival the field camp had to be set up and destroyed again on the morning of departure. The plural castra was the name given to any kind of military camp, the singular castrum certainly existed but was not used in mil. vocabulary. Castellum is the diminutive form of castra (Veg. Mil. 3,8) and also had a civilian meaning. The origin of the Roman camps is uncertain; because …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Roman fort in Britannia, built before AD 50 at the site of an Iron-Age settlement on the present-day Soar River and held for c. 20 years. The fort and its vicus grew into the core of a prosperous town (It. Ant. 477,4; Ptol. 2,3,20: Ῥάγε/Rháge; CIL VII 1169; cf. CIL XVI 160), present-day Leicester [1. 52 f.]. Already before AD 100, R. was the main city of the Coritani or Corieltauvi [2]. The forum and the basilica were built under Hadrian (AD 117-138), the baths in c. AD 150. Parts of the baths have survived as the Jewry Wall, as…

[German version] One of five tribes in Britannia, who surrendered to Caesar in 54 BC (Caes. B Gall. 5,21). Their settlement area, which cannot be localized exactly, was in the south-east of the island. Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography A. L. F. Rivet, C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain, 1979, 302.

[German version] (probably modern Ravenglass/Cumbria). The camp was laid out at the beginning of Hadrian's rule at an anchorage at the river (not excavated); especially striking is a bathhouse outside the walls; the building's walls with windows 3.5 metres high are still extant. G. was likely abandoned in the late 4th cent. Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography E. Birley, The Roman Fort at Ravenglass (Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society 58), 1958, 14-30.

[German version] Tribe beyond the northern frontier of the Roman province of Britannia, first mentioned in connection with the events of AD 297 (Laterculus Veronensis 13; Pan. Lat. 8,11,4). Constantius [1] I campaigned against them in AD 306, but from the mid-4th cent. they subjected the province to repeated attack (Amm. Marc. 20,1; 26,4,5; 27,8,20). Their territory lay in eastern Scotland, north of the Firth of Forth (cf. the etymology of various place names). Little is known of their settlements…

[German version] Harbour town in far southeastern Britannia, modern Richborough (Kent), on the now silted-up channel between the island of Tonatis (modern Isle of Thanet) and the mainland of Kent [1]. The settlement, captured by the invading army of the emperor Claudius [III 1] in AD 43, was used as a central military supply base until the late 1st cent. AD. Between AD 80 and 90, a triumphal arch was erected here, probably to celebrate the northern conquests of the Flavian governors [1. 40-73]. Th…

[German version] British tribe who inhabited the region between Snowdonia and the Severn valley (Ptol. 2,3,18); a site of principal settlement is unknown. They opposed the Roman invasion under Nero (AD 50), but were defeated by Julius Frontinus and Julius [II 3] Agricola between AD 74 and AD 79 (Tac. Ann. 12,33). According to Tac. Agr. 18,2, they were annihilated by Agricola. Nevertheless their name survives: e.g. in Dinorwig and Rhyd Orddwy (Wales). Britannia (with map: the indigenous tribes) Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography M.G. Jarrett, J.C. Mann, The Tribes of Wales, in: W…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: | Britannia | Britannia (modern Silchester). An Iron Age oppidum, main centre of the Atrebates [2], it developed from 100 BC into a significant political centre. Through its links with  Commius, the settlement boomed in the mid 1st cent. BC. It is likely that, after AD 43, Calleva Atrebatum (CA) was incorporated into Cogidubnus' empire. The early Roman town was established within the Iron Age fortifications [1]. From its very beginnings, CA's developmen…

[German version] Roman fort near Manchester, on the road from Deva to Eboracum, first occupied in the Flavian period (AD 69-96), probably under Cn. Iulius [II 3] Agricola. Renovated in the early 2nd cent. [1]. An inscription on a Severan building suggests a further extension in the 3rd cent. [2. 581]. In the 4th cent., M. gained considerable strategic importance, before being abandoned after AD 370. A large vicus surrounded the fort. Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography 1 G. D. B. Jones, S. Grealey, Roman Manchester, 1974 2 R. G. Collingwood, R. P. Wight, The Roman Inscriptions of Brita…

[German version] Roman fort about 40 km to the west of Newcastle upon Tyne, modern Chesterholm, founded in the Flavian period (AD 69-96) [1]. The fort was renovated under Hadrian; Hadrian's Wall runs 3 km to the north of it (Limes II, with map). The fort was also renovated a century later. A large vicus developed to the west of it in the 2nd and 3rd cents. [2. 1700; 3]. The most significant find from V. is the Vindolanda Writing Tablets. Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography 1 P. Bidwell, The Roman Fort of V. at Chesterholm, 1985 2 R. G. Collingwood, R. P. Wright, The Roman Inscriptions …

[German version] (Καττιτερίδες; Kattiterídes, ‘tin islands’). The C. were probably the regions and islands of the Atlantic coast of both Gaul and Britain; C. also generally referred to the south-west of Britain and the offshore islands. Most ancient authors had but little specific knowledge of this region. Thus Pliny reports that the Greek Midacritus was the first to import tin from the island of Cassiteris ( Midacritus, Plin. HN 7,197), without providing exact topographical details. Hdt. 3,115 doubted the very existence of these tin islands, probably because …

[German version] Settlement in the valley of the North Tyne, modern Corbridge. During the conquest by Agricola (AD 77-84) a large base was erected here, subsequently replaced by a camp further to the east (destroyed by fire c. 125). After Hadrian's Wall was erected 7 km to the north, C. was extended to become a supply base. In the early 3rd cent. C. played a decisive role in connection with the campaigns of Septimius Severus. An important city adjoining the base arose here in the 3rd and 4th cents. [1].  Limes;  Britannia Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography 1 M. Bishop, J. N. Dore, Corbridg…

[German version] In one of the burial mounds at SH near Woodbridge in Suffolk a wooden ship was found with a rich treasure (Gaulish, Scandinavian and Eastern English goods, Byzantine silver bowls, including one with the stamp of Anastasius [1] I, also Frankish coins of the period around AD 625). It is presumably the tomb of Rædwald (6th/7th cent. AD), a king of East Anglia. Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography R. Bruce-Mitford, The S. H. Ship-Burial, 3 vols., 1975-1983.

(Ireland). [German version] A. Ancient knowledge Ancient geographers report little of the north-west coasts of Europe and the islands off this coast. The first knowledge regarding the island of Ireland, Ierne or H. was probably only obtained during the exploratory journey of Pytheas ( c. 320 BC [1; 2]). Pytheas probably did not visit H. himself and his reports were only second-hand, but Strabo, Diodorus and Mela probably had access to his information (Str. 4,5,4; Diod. Sic. 5,32; Mela 3,6). Some elements of this tradition are pure fantasy…

[German version] Celtic tribe in Southeast Wales from the coast to the Wye, especially in the coastal plain of present-day Glamorgan. The S. resisted the Romans from AD 44, at first under Caratacus (Tac. Ann. 12,32 f.; 12,38-40; 14,29), but were finally subdued in AD 74-76 by Frontinus (Tac. Agr. 17). In the 2nd cent., possibly under Hadrian, the S. were organised as civitas Silurum with the capital of Venta Silurum (present-day Caerwent). Modest villae were built in the coastal plain. In the end, the S. came to be the most Romanised tribe in Wales. Todd, Malcolm (Exeter) Bibliography V. E. …