ROMAN REMAINS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 131, 6 June 1925, Page 16

ROMAN REMAINS

All stMer^ijf-tßoinß^in England are awaiting with"k,eeh interest.';.the:.renßwal of the excavation work " onC.t&a ,Tsittt;t!£ Viroconiunlj a Roman city which" lies sci^^ifw^r^»ol£Sfir6\vsbui;y*. "■ *Las£. sealfc's 1 finds ■ resH-Hred-^n- the discover jr of many rooms, passages, pottery, coins, and other objects, but outstanding above all there was the inscription, remarkable for the fineness of its cutting and for- being tho largest ever found in Britain. It was found during the uiicoveriug of the important civic building unearthed last year,. states . tho /'Sphere." The inscription tells us of tho dedication of the newly-discovered building by the Civitas Cornovioruiii.,m the fourteenth year of "-the:\reign -of Hadrian, which gives us"the,"date, 130 A.D. The site of this Eoraan city covers an area of 170 acres, and much interest has been arousejl by last season's]work and by the probable"* results of the comi ing 1925 excavations. '-'■' -■'■'. ,: ■ .

To reach Virocoaium one journeys from Shrewsbury to Wroxeter, and there one discovers that Viroconiutn (or Uriconium) occupies a bold piece of ground elevated above the level of tbc Iliyer. Severn. One looks over' an. -ordinary roadside hedge, and an " astonishing sight meets the eye. There-in a trench 'below are the remains of the finest iltoman colonnade =.*-yet r unearthed -in this country. ■ Tlfe "bases'- of-':the columns are well preserved,->and .one gets an instant thrill of "standing-'on gi'o»nd ■ Avhich lias witnessed-a-.great civilisation which lias passed. All'that is known at present is.that Viroconium was about half Ihe size of Roman London. .For a short time after 50 A.D. it was" a. camp for one, or perhaps two, legffons. Tombs of soldiers have been found in its cemetery. After 67 A.D. the civil settlement which had-grown up- round the. camp developed inloione of ihe most important towns of tlie provanees.- ■ It is mentioned in Ptolemy's "Geography," compiled about 120 A.D. Ptolemy's name for- : it.iv.as Viroconium, which, with. L Triconium'iind_WToxeter, are believed'to derive from thJEr^Vrfeijin,,the' famous hill four or five^mjles -distant, from which the Romans,.*suji}}orted by the'garrison at Chester, dominated "this part of "flic country. The site was at" first excavated someidesad.es ago, but.{the original efiorts diedo.a\vay .owing to "lack of funds; a little was done in 1912-14, but it was only last year that 'serious excavation was renewed by the Birmingham Archaeological Society on the site by the generosity of Sir Charles Hyde A great.hall or basilica has been disi covered, together with a complete set of_baths such as one finds in a Roman '-■■feafc-thj^kind.; an enameller's shop ""SlSi^'^^^^coteredyJwith furnace and'- ahVilr-"- -i'^^'^w-iv-: .>,>.=.■..-_.., ■„-..,-.^^.