Viroconium Cornoviorum

Viroconium or Uriconium, formally Viroconium Cornoviorum, was a Roman town, one corner of which is now occupied by Wroxeter, a small village in Shropshire, England, about 5 miles (8.0 km) east-south-east of Shrewsbury. At its peak, Viroconium is estimated to have been the 4th-largest Roman settlement in Britain, a civitas with a population of more than 15,000.[1] The settlement probably lasted until the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the 8th.[2] Extensive remains can still be seen.

Viroconium Cornoviorum
Remains of the public baths, known as "The Old Work"
Shown within Shropshire
LocationWroxeter, Shropshire, England
RegionBritannia
Coordinates52.674°N 2.645°W / 52.674; -2.645
TypeSettlement
For the fictional city in the works of M. John Harrison, see Viriconium.

Toponym

Viroconium is a Latinised form of a toponym that was reconstructed as Common Brittonic *Uiroconion "[city] of *Uirokū". *Uirokū (lit. "man-wolf") is believed to have been a masculine given name meaning "werewolf".[3][4]

The original capital of the local British tribe of the Cornovii was the impressive hillfort on the Wrekin known as *Uiroconion. When the Cornovii were eventually subdued by the Romans, their capital was moved to Wroxeter and given its Roman name. Hence the term "Cornoviorum" distinguishes the site as the Viroconium "of the Cornovii", the Celtic tribe whose settlement became civitas.

History

Roman
Roman ruins at Viroconium Cornoviorum, photographed during excavation by Francis Bedford and digitally restored

Wroxeter was first established in the early years of the Roman conquest of Britain as a frontier post for a cohort of Thracian Auxilia who were taking part in the campaigns of the governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula.[5] The site was chosen because it is strategically located near the end of Watling Street, the primary Roman trunk road that ran across Britannia from Dubris (Dover); eventually, by the 70s CE it would continue north to the castrum of Deva Victrix (Chester). The post was a key frontier position because it defended the River Severn valley as it come out of Cambria (Wales) as well as protecting the route to the south that lead to the Wye valley.

In the mid First Century Legio XIV Gemina took over the site from the Thracian Auxilia. The legion, in preparation for the invasion of Cambria, replaced the frontier port with a legionary fortress. In 78CE, governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola led campaigns to suppress the Celtic tribes in North Wales and the druids on Ynys Môn. In 80CE, Agricola took Legio XIV Gemina north on his punitive expeditions against the Picts in Scotland. With the departure of Legio XIV Gemina, Legio XX Valeria Victrix took over the fort.

By the late 80s CE the fort had ceased to be used by the Roman army. In this period the canabae, or civilian settlement, that had grown up around the legionary fort began turning it into a town. Archaeological research has found that an unfinished legionary bath house in the centre of the town eventually became the town's forum. A decade later a civic street grid was subsuming the plan of the old legionary fort.[5]

The colonnaded forum was started in the 120s CE covering the unfinished bath house, and with the impressive dedicatory inscription to Hadrian found in excavations dating the completion to 130 CE. By 130 CE, the town had expanded especially under Emperor Hadrian to cover an area of more than 173 acres (70 ha). It then had many public buildings, including thermae. Simpler temples and shops have also been excavated. At its peak, Viroconium is estimated to have been the one of the richest and the fourth largest Roman settlement in Britain with a population of more than 15,000.[1] Its wealth is surprising for what remained a frontier town and is perhaps explained by its access to Wales and to other trade routes.

Between 165-185 AD the forum burned down, including neighbouring shops and houses, and many shop contents were subsequently found in excavations. The forum was rebuilt with several modifications.

Following the end of Roman rule in Britain around 410, the Cornovii tribe divided into Pengwern (Shropshire) and Powys. This socio-political division started Viroconium's decline as an important settlement.

Early medieval period

Although Viroconium served as the early sub-Roman capital of Powys, variously identified with the ancient Welsh cities of Cair Urnarc[6] or Cair Guricon[7] which appeared in the Historia Brittonum's list the 28 civitates of Britain.[8]

Viroconium became the site of the court of a sub-Roman kingdom known as the Wrocensaete, which was the successor territorial unit to Cornovia. Wrocensaete means the ‘inhabitants of Wroxeter’.[9]

The Wroxeter Stone or Cunorix Stone, was found in 1967, with an inscription in an Insular Celtic language, identified by the Celtic Inscribed Stones Project (CISP) at UCL as "partly-Latinized Primitive Irish".[10] The inscription, probably on a re-used gravestone, is dated to 460-475 AD, when Irish raiders had begun to make permanent settlements in South Wales and south-western Britain.[11]

Town life in Viroconium continued in the fifth century, but many of the buildings fell into disrepair. Between 530 and 570, when most Roman urban sites and villas in Britain were being abandoned,[12] there was a substantial rebuilding programme. The old basilica was carefully demolished and replaced with new timber-framed buildings on rubble platforms. These probably included a very large two-storey building and a number of storage buildings and houses. In all, 33 new buildings were "carefully planned and executed" and "skillfully constructed to Roman measurements using a trained labour force".[13] Who instigated this rebuilding programme is not known, but it may have been a bishop.[14] Some of the buildings were renewed three times, and the community probably lasted about 75 years until, for some reason, many of the buildings were dismantled.[15]

The site was probably abandoned peacefully in the second half of the seventh century or the beginning of the eighth.[16] The later minor Magonsæte sub-kingdom of the Angles emerged in the area when Oswiu conquered Pengwern in 656. Eventually the court of the Kingdom of Powys moved to Mathrafal sometime before 717 following famine and plague in its original location.

Preservation
The recreation of a Roman town house at Viroconium

Although archaeologist Philip A. Barker believed stonework from Viroconium Cornoviorum, was used to build the nearby parish churches of Atcham, Wroxeter, and Upton Magna[17] some substantial remains are still standing. These include "the Old Work" (an archway, part of the baths' frigidarium and the largest free-standing Roman ruin in England) and the remains of a baths complex. These are on display to the public and, along with a small museum, are looked after by English Heritage under the name "Wroxeter Roman City". Some of the more important finds are housed in the Music Hall Museum in Shrewsbury. Most of the town still remains buried, but it has largely been mapped through geophysical survey and aerial archaeology.

Archaeological research of the site is ongoing with further buildings being excavated.

Reconstructed villa

In February 2011 a reconstructed Roman villa was opened to the public to give visitors an insight into Roman building techniques and how the Romans lived.[18][19] A Channel 4 television series entitled Rome Wasn't Built in a Day[20] showed how it was built using authentic ancient techniques. The builders were assisted by a team of local volunteers and supervised by archaeologist Dai Morgan Evans, who designed the villa.

Notes
  1. Frere, Britannia, p.253
  2. White, Roger; Dalwood, Hal (March 1995). "Archaeological assessment of Wroxeter, Shropshire" (PDF). The Archaeology Data Service. p. 5. Retrieved 15 April 2016. The occupation in the town seems to have ended peacefully, possibly in the late 7th or early 8th century
  3. Delamarre, Xavier (2012). Noms de lieux celtiques de l'europe ancienne. Arles: Editions Errance. p. 273. ISBN 978-2-87772-483-8.
  4. Wodtko, Dagmar (2000). Wörterbuch der keltiberischen Inschriften: Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum, Band V.1. Reichert-Verlag. p. 452. ISBN 978-3-89500-136-9.
  5. Wacher, J (1974). The Towns of Roman Britai. Anchor Press. pp. 358–359.
  6. Newman, John Henry (1844). Lives of the English Saints: St. German, Bishop of Auxerre. James Toovey (London). p. 92.
  7. Ford, David Nash (2000). The 28 Cities of Britain. Britannia.
  8. Nennius (attrib.). Theodor Mommsen (ed.). Historia Brittonum, VI. Composed after AD 830. (in Latin) Hosted at Latin Wikisource.
  9. Higham, Nick J. (1993). The Origins of Cheshire. Manchester University Press. pp. 68–77. ISBN 0-7190-3160-5.
  10. CISP database, 'http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/stone/wrxtr_1.html', recovered 14 Sep 2014
  11. "Cunorix Stone", A History of Ireland in 100 Objects
  12. Loseby, Simon T. (2000). "Power and towns in Late Roman Britain and early Anglo-Saxon England". In Gisela Ripoll; Josep M. Gurt (eds.). Sedes regiae (ann. 400–800). Barcelona. p. 339. The likes of Verulamium and Wroxeter... are the best representatives of a 'post-Roman' phase of activity on town sites, a phenomenon which is not attested beyond the middle of the fifth century elsewhere.
  13. Barker 1998, pp. 121–128.
  14. Barker 1998, p. 125.
  15. Barker 1998, p. 136.
  16. Archaeological assessment of Wroxeter, Shropshire
  17. Barker, A. Philip (1977). Techniques of Archaeological Excavation. Routledge. p. 11.
  18. "Reconstructed Roman villa unveiled at Wroxeter". BBC News. 19 February 2011.
  19. "English Heritage – Properties". www.english-heritage.org.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  20. "Channel 4 series build Roman villa using ancient methods". Daily mail. Retrieved 21 June 2019.

Bibliography
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