Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/482

 822 COLLECTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF colonisers of Britain, that it seems not an inapt appropria- tion of a portion of the pages of this Journal, occasionally to chronicle these events, and, under the general head now adopted, to supply memoirs from time to time, descriptive in turn of the treasures of some particular site. Roman remains, found at Cirencester, have on several former occasions, demanded the notice of the antiquary, and there are few places, perhaps, which have so strong a claim on the attention of the Archaeologist. At a very early period, under the name of " Cair Ceri," ^ it appears to have been a town of some consideration, sufficiently so at the time of the Roman invasion, at once to attract the attention of the conquerors under whom it rapidly rose into greater importance. Three, if not more, of the great Vise constructed by that road-making people met there ; its situation on the river Corin, or Churn, a tributary to the Isis, and also to the Thames, in an open fertile district, was very central for the purpose of the subjection of the natives, as well as for the protection of the new settlers, and raised it to a military station of the first eminence, which must have been found useful in keeping in check the incursions of the warlike Silures. In the xiiith Iter of Antoninus, it is called " Durocornovium," xiv. m.p. from "Glevum" (Gloucester). By Ptolemseus it is named " Corinium Dobunorum,'^ being the chief town of the Dobuni, whose territory was eastward of the Silures, and adjoining the Attrebatii. The same authority states that the Belgae were to the southward - of the Dobuni, and that their chief town was at Aquse Calidse (Bath). In the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, Corinium is found in the xtli Iter between " Clebon Colonise " and "Aqua3 Solis," xiv. m.p. from the former. These several boundaries and distances so clearly point out the situation of Corinium, that there can be no doubt as to its identity, or that Cirencester is its modern representative. Corinium is said to have been built by a Roman General in the time of Claudius,^ and to have had walls and a castle in the time of Constantino, and was strongly fortified. After the depar- ture of the Romans, early in the fifth century, it continued to maintain its importance, and at the time of the Heptarchy • According to Nennius, " Cair Ceri " i.s tlio fourteenth in a list of 3^5 towns enumerated in cliap. ii. Hist, de prim, inliab. Britoiiuni IJiitannicnu insuhe. See also Hen. of Hunt. ' Ric. Mon. de situ Britanniio. e. vi.