Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and FabricRoutledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and Fabric
Routledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
St. Martin's Church (Canterbury, England)
The Egyptian geographer, Ptolemy, apparently writing about the middle of
the second century, gives Dur[)e]num as one of the three cities of the
Cantii; while in the fragmentary map known as the _Tabula Peutingerii_
(called so from Conrad Peutinger, in whose library it was found, and
supposed to have been compiled about the time of the Emperor Theodosius
the younger) it is put down as "Buroaverus," evidently a corruption
of copyists, with the conventional mark usually attached to a city or
fortress of considerable size.
Horsley, in his _Britannia Romana_, suggests that Canterbury was the
fortress taken by the seventh legion after Julius Cæsar's second landing;
but this is purely conjectural, and founded on the mistaken belief that
Cæsar landed at Richborough. Even though the fact is not directly
mentioned in the "Notitia Imperii" (enumerating the garrisons of the
Empire), it is far from impossible that at some period or other during
the first four centuries there were some Roman soldiers quartered
for a considerable time at Canterbury. If not wholly or partially
surrounded by walls (which is more than probable), the city was at
any rate defended by earthworks, and we have evidences of a fortified
position held by the Romans immediately above the Whitehall marshes,
north-west of the city; and of a stronghold or fort of masonry on the
so-called Scotland Hills overlooking the Reed Pond.
[Illustration: WEST FRONT OF ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH. (From an Old Print.)]
Whether much stress be laid on this or not, one fact is absolutely
certain, that the extensive Roman foundations discovered by Mr Pilbrow
while constructing the deep-drainage system of the city in 1868, the
number of Roman tesselated pavements, coins, and other relics found at
various periods, and the traces of Roman cemeteries, abundantly prove
that Durovernum developed at length into a large and populous place.
Among various discoveries may be enumerated Samian ware, coffins, conduit
pipes, rings, bottles, urns, Upchurch pottery, spoons, arrowheads,
and skeletons, as well as indications of a large iron foundry; and a long
list of gold ornaments includes portions of châtelaines, fibulæ, studs,
purses, combs; and (what is especially germane to this history) a purple
enamelled Roman brooch of circular shape, and a looped Roman intaglio,
found near St. Martin's Church. All these appear to show that the Roman
occupation of Canterbury was at once complete and continuous.
Of Roman secular buildings above ground there are indeed no remains,
and the ancient city must be traced some eight feet below the present
level. But in St. Margaret's and in Sun Street there are undoubted
evidences of Roman walls. It is not impossible that, when first occupied,
the town of Durovernum was very small, consisting of a citadel surrounded
by earth mounds, and that it gradually extended itself afterwards beyond
its original limits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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