Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/82

 Chap, III. OF MANCHESTER- 5S colour plainly tinftures over the whole. And the whole Itine- rary plainly refers itfelf to one period '• It was certainly com- posed after the wall of Hadrian, and even after the vallum of Antoninus, were ere&ed, becaufe it exprefsly mentions both 6 - This neceflarily reduces the date of the Itinerary below the year 138, the flrft of Antoninus's reign. It was certainly compofed wheii the Romans retained their ftations on Antoninus's wall, when they retained their ftations beyond it, and when they had ptofecuted their roads and their conquefts along the eaftern coaft of the ifland a& far as Invernefs. Two of the eighteen Itinera traverfe all the country betwixt Inverness and the friths. And a£ fuch a road could not have been profecuted or fuch an Iter drawn up in the days of Agricola, who plainly advanced very littlfc beyond the river Tay ?, fo could neither have been done niuch later than the reign of Antoninus Pius. We have th^ po- * fitive authority of the fame author, who fpdaks undoubtedly from records, and whofe particular mention of the year is a full argument that he does, that in the year 1 70 the Romans de- ferted all the country which lay to the north of Antoninus's Va#titn ' ' This reafcning therefore confines the date of the 1 Itinerary Within a fmall circle of years. DhiWn up certainly aftw the yfcar 138; it was as certainly drawn up before the year 170. And this neceflarily obliges us to affign the conftru&ion of the roads beyond the Tay, and the compofure of an Itinerary for them, to the only one that could pofRbly execute either, Lollius Urbir cms, the well-known governor of the ifland under Antoninus Pius. This officer, being fent into the ifland in 140 % imme- diately pafled the former bounds of the empire, and invaded the country that lay to the north of the two friths. Betwixt tie friths Agricola had formerly ere&ed a line of forts * Thefe had not been deftroyed ; and LolHus immediately joined them together by a long vallum ". Agricola raifed his prarfteri* tura of forts before he advanced beyond the Tay to the Gram- pfah mountains 2 Jt ; and Ldllius feems to have afted in the fame manner. Hfc feems to have ere£ed his. wall m the year 1 40 ' V and