Although we are dealing with historic and not prehistoric times in describing the occupation of the County of Dorset by the Romans, it is to the work of the spade and not of the pen that we must turn for the memorials of that most interesting and important period, which lasted nearly four hundred years; when the all-powerful, masterful race, the conquerors of the world, held sway, enforced obedience to their laws, and inaugurated that system of colonisation which was perhaps the best the world has ever seen—a system designed and developed according to exact regulations, which savoured more of military discipline than of that civil liberty which we associate with the profession of agriculture. The Roman occupation was indeed an admirable combination of military and civil rule; and the memorials fall naturally into two distinct classes, corresponding with two distinct periods. There is, first, the period of conquest, embracing the years during which the Roman Legions drove back the native levies, and captured their strongholds; not in one summer campaign we may well believe, but year after year, with irresistible force, until the subjugated tribes laid down their arms and yielded the hostages demanded by the conquerors. Then followed the period of peace, of civilisation, and of colonising; of improving the roads, and marking out of farms; the days of trade and commerce, and of building houses, temples, and places for public amusement. Now both aspects of the occupation are to be seen as clearly at this day as if they were described in the pages of a book; and yet what is the fact? Scarcely a sentence can be found of written history which deals with it. General Pitt-Rivers, who, living in Dorset, devoted many years of his life to antiquarian research, asserts that having read with attention all the writings that were accessible upon that obscure period of history, some by scholars of great ability, nothing definite can be found to relate to the Roman Conquest. It is, however, generally assumed that it fell to the lot of Vespasian, in command of the world-famous “Legio Secunda,” to commence, if not to complete, the subjugation of the Durotriges, the people who are believed to have inhabited the southern portion of the county. The only reference to Vespasian’s campaign by contemporary historians is made by Suetonius. He says that Vespasian crossed to Britain, fought with the enemy some thirty times, and reduced to submission two most warlike tribes and twenty fortified camps, and the island (Isle of Wight) adjacent to the coast. In this statement, which is all too brief to satisfy our curiosity, may lie the main facts of the passing of Dorset into Roman power. The work begun by Vespasian may, indeed, have been completed by others—by Paulinus Suetonius, the Governor of Britain about the year 60, and by Agricola; and where so much is left to conjecture, it is at least worth while to give once more the theory propounded by the