Portsmouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Reculver (_Regulbium_) . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Richborough (_Rutupiae_) . . . . . . . . . . 50 Rochester (_Durobrivae_) . . . . . . . . . . 51 Silchester (_Calleva Atre-batum_) . . . . . . 51 St. Albans (_Verulamium_) . . . . . . . . . . 52 Winchester (_Venta Belgarum_) . . . . . . . . 54 Wroxeter (_Uriconium_, or _Viroconium_) . . . 55 York (_Eboracum_) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Appendix C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Appendix D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 TABLE OF MAPS. Roman Britain showing the chief Roman Roads Frontispiece The Roman Wall To face page 31 INTRODUCTION HISTORICAL SKETCH. The earliest notice of Britain is in Herodotus (B.C. 480-408); but he mentions the Tin Islands (Scilly Islands and Cornwall), only to confess his ignorance about them. More important is a passage in Aristotle (B.C. 384-322), who (writing a century later) is the earliest author who mentions the British Isles by name, as he does in the following passage: "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar) the ocean flows round the earth, and in it are two very large islands (Nesoi Britannikoi), called in British Albion and Ierne, lying beyond the Keltoi." The application of the name Britannia to denote the larger island, is due to Julius Caesar (B.C. 100-44), who is the first _Roman_ writer to mention Britain. The name itself may be derived from Welsh, _brith_, mottled, tattooed, or from _brithyn_, cloth, cloth-clad, as opposed to the skin-clad Celts. The history of Britain would be a very long one if we only knew it. It is clear that a considerable interchange of commerce was carried on between the south-eastern parts of the island and Gaul, and that even the remoter regions of the Mediterranean were largely dependent upon Britain for their supplies of tin from the Cornish mines, of lead from Somerset, and of iron from Northumberland and the Forest of Dean. Politically, Britain consisted of a number of independent bodies, united in a federation of the loosest kind, in which the lead was taken by that tribe which happened at the time to be the most powerful or to have the bravest or most astute leader.