Dorset (England) -- Antiquities; Dorset (England) -- History
well-known antiquary, the late Mr. Charles Warne, F.S.A. In a paper
read before the Society of Antiquaries in June, 1867, he suggests that
as the south-eastern parts of Britain had been previously visited by
Roman armies, Vespasian directed his course further to the west, and
either made the Isle of Wight the base of his operations or anchored
his ships in the harbours of Swanage or Poole. Close by is the
commencement of the long range of hills, The Ridgeway, which, with few
interruptions, follows the coast line, and still shews by the number of
the burial-mounds the district inhabited by the British.
Mr. Warne proceeds to enumerate the various camps along this route,
all at convenient distances from one another, some of which shew by
their construction that they were Roman camps, and others British
camps, captured by the conquering legions, as narrated by Suetonius.
If Vespasian had pursued this plan of campaign, it would have had
the additional advantage of enabling him to keep in touch with his
transports. As one hill fortress after another was captured in the
march westward along the Ridgeway heights, so the fleet might have
changed its anchorage from Swanage Bay to Lulworth, from Lulworth to
the shelter of Weymouth and Portland, and finally to the neighbourhood
of Charmouth or Lyme Regis.
There is this also to be said in favour of Mr. Warne’s conjecture.
An attacking force must find out and capture the strongholds of the
defenders, which would naturally be made more strongly, and therefore
last longer than the camps of the invaders. And this is what we see in
the suggested line of the Roman advance. First, on the east, Flowers,
or Florus Bury Camp, and Bindun, then Mai-dun (Maiden Castle), after
that Eggardun, and finally, at the western limit of the county, Conig’s
Castle and Pylsdun. All these are (as far as can be seen now) British
camps of refuge; all of them must have been captured before the Roman
generals could feel secure in their own isolated position on a foreign
shore. That they were one and all occupied by the conquerors is also
most probable, and would account for the discovery of Roman relics
within their areas. No Roman camps can be seen at all approaching in
strength or size these magnificent hill fortresses. It is, of course,
well known that the armies of Rome never halted for a night without
forming an entrenchment of sufficient size to include not only the
fighting men, but the baggage train, and though traces of these still
remain on the hills of Dorset, the majority have long ago disappeared.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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