Introduction
The history of Roman Britain as a whole has been written many times by a variety of scholars, and a number of significant sites have been discussed in books or articles of their own, but treatment of areas between all of Britain and a single site in size are rarely dealt with. It is my intention to examine here a single region, the administrative region referred to by the Romans as Cornovian lands.
I have chosen to look at this region for a number of reasons. First, it is under studied. Region studies of Britain tend to focus on areas considered to be more interesting. The frontier region around Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall is frequently explored; so too is the south-east, which before the conquest of Britain in 43AD already had contacts with Rome. Secondly, it enables the regional differences in Roman military attitudes towards the conquest of Britain to be highlighted. Finally, I live in Shropshire and have done most of my life and as such have a personal interest in the history of the area.
Looking at only military aspects, and not rural or economic considerations, is one of practicality: the military considerations of the Roman invasion are more frequently written about, both in ancient and modern sources, and thus easier to explore; and a more thorough discussion of the region including non-military considerations would require too many words to satisfactorily cover here.
The Cornovii
The Cornovii of the west midlands should not be confused with two other social entities of the same name, as recorded by the Romans, found in Scotland and Cornwall (Webster 1975, 18). The region itself is already sufficiently difficult to determine, with different scholars drawing different borders on their maps of the region; suffice to say, the region regarded as Cornovian territory is generally agreed to include most of Shropshire and Cheshire, south and west Staffordshire, and occasionally parts of north-east Wales and/or northern Herefordshire.
Regardless of the exact territory considered to be Cornovian, the very concept of the Cornovii as a distinct and unified tribal group is problematic. It goes back to the Roman source material: the name is first given by Claudius Ptolemy in his Geography, and used thereafter by the Romans for administrative purposed in the new British province (Webster 1975, 20). It is difficult to determine if the peoples of the region genuinely identified themselves as being part of one social group, however.
The pre-conquest period
For the period before the invasion of AD43, archaeology must be relied upon since the region is not mentioned by name in any texts and the native Britons did not keep a written history. Caesar makes a brief generalisation regarding the peoples of Britain, categorising them into two groups: the maritime coastal inhabitants that he encountered in Kent, and the inhabitants of the interior, who he claimed lived on milk and meat (Caesar, Bella Gallica V.14). However, Caesar’s knowledge of Britain was severely limited and his writing politically motivated (Gardner 1982, 24-5).
The general lack of surviving material culture at hill fort sites has led to conclusions that the people of the area were poor and divided (Webster 1975, 14), but this neglects the possibility that wealth was shown in other ways which do not survive in the archaeological record or which are less evident. Indeed, the area was fertile and had valuable sources of copper, lead and salt, and the hill forts may have been a method to display that wealth (White and Barker 1998, 37-8). This seems a more logical conclusion than that provided by Webster.
Hill forts in the region include Old Oswestry, Titterstone Clee, and the Wrekin in Shropshire and Maiden Castle in Cheshire. The hill fort on the Wrekin may have been a significant one for the residents of the area (Ellis 2000, 1), though White and Barker suggest that rather than being the main Cornovian hill fort site, the Wrekin may simply have been a convenient point of attack for the Romans, since it would have been the first they reached and easy to surround (White and Barker 1998, 39).
The post-conquest period
Little is known on how this region was treated in the early years of the conquest, though it is likely that it was occupied by the Romans in order to control movement in and out of north Wales along the Rivers Severn and Dee (Wacher 1974, 362). Tacitus makes only a brief mention indicating that the area was brought under Roman control in AD47, seemingly without significant resistance, when Publius Ostorius Scapula was governor of Britain (Annals 12:31). The hill fort on the Wrekin was taken by a Roman force that was probably based at the vexillation fort at nearby Leighton (White and Barker 1998, 38-9).
Wroxeter
A legionary fortress was established at Wroxeter (Viroconium), a few miles to the west of the Wrekin overlooking the Severn (Ellis 2000, 1). It was probably built by the XIV Gemina, which subsequently occupied the fortress, in around AD57 (White and Barker 1998, 43). Wroxeter is likely to have been the base of operation for the conquest of north Wales in the late 50s and 60s (White and Barker 1998, 49-50), but may have also been established in order to control lead mines in western Shropshire (Ellis 2000, 2). The XIV legion was recalled to mainland Europe in AD66 (Mason 2001, 29). Wroxeter became the base of legio XX after the departure of the XIV.
The fortress at Wroxeter enclosed about 40 acres (about 16 hectares), and was similar in both size and layout to the later brief fortress at Inchtuthil in Scotland (White and Barker 1998, 43-5). The fortress was abandoned around AD84, when legio XX moved to Chester, and Wroxeter became a town (Creighton 2006, 116).
For the rest of its history, Wroxeter was a civitas capital, as evidenced by an inscription dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian by CIVITAS CORNOVIORUM – the tribe of the Cornovii (Ireland 1986, number 458). Wroxeter was a significant town, and is believed to have been the fourth largest town in Britain (Meech 2000, 136).
Chester
Another legionary fortress was established at Chester (Deva) at some point during the 70s. Construction of the fortress at Chester was begun by legio II Adiutrix and continued by XX Valeria Victrix after II Adiutrix was withdrawn to the continent in the 80s and the XX was moved down from the frontier in the north (de la Bédoyère 2006, 49).
There are two key aspects of the Chester legionary fortress which differentiate it and the administrative area of the Cornovii from other areas in Britain. The first is that, with the fortress at Wroxeter still active during the first few years of military occupation at Chester, there were two legionary fortresses in fairly close proximity, and this was unusual for Britain. The second is the size, shape and layout of the fortress itself.
The fortress was considerably larger than the contemporary legionary fortresses at York and Caerleon, enclosing an area of a little over 60 acres (24.4 hectares), compared to 50.17 acres (20.3 hectares) at York and 50.64 acres (20.5 hectares) at Caerleon. The space was created by making the fortress at Chester longer, with a length to width ratio of 3:2 rather than the more common 5:4 ratio (Mason 2001, 52).
The circuit wall of the fortress boasted certain features which were usually reserved only for gateways or public buildings, such as the method of the construction of the wall itself, and a moulded cornice at parapet level (Mason 2001, 90). This, combined with the presence of certain unusual buildings within the fortress such as the elliptical building, has led Mason to suggest that this may have been in order to display the power of Rome, or an indication that Chester was intended as a governor’s headquarters at a period on the province’s history when governors were also generals, but the plan was abandoned at a later date (Mason 2001, 93-4). This seems conceivable. Chester is at a key position within Britain, with access both to the north of England and to north Wales, two areas which resisted the Romans during the late first century.
The later Roman period
While Chester remained as the official base of the XX legion, there appears to have been little military activity in the area once Wales and the north of England where under Roman control. During the second century, much of the Roman forces in Britain were engaged in campaigns in the north, or in building the frontiers of Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall. Vexillations from British legions were involved in campaigns on the continent during the third and fourth centuries, and after leaving Britain may not have returned (Mattingly 2006, 226).
It was the British legions who at the start of the fifth century supported Flavius Claudius Constantinus to become co-emperor of the Western Roman empire with Honorius; he took the garrison with him from Britain to secure it, and in 410, Honorius wrote to Britain with instructions that they should do what they needed to defend themselves (de la Bédoyère 2006, 78). Britain was no longer a Roman province.
Conclusion
Before the arrival of the Romans in Shropshire and Cheshire, the area appears to have had little or no contact with mainland Europe and as such the society that existed there was markedly different from those of the south-east of England. Nevertheless, lack of surviving material culture does not mean lack of wealth, and it is likely the area was fairly rich and this wealth was merely shown in different ways to the south.
During the early Roman period the region was fairly densely occupied by Roman forces, since there were unconquered peoples both to the west, in Wales, and to the north, and both Wroxeter and Chester were used as operational bases from which campaigns against these peoples were carried out. After the frontier moved on, so did much of the legions, and the area, though still containing a legionary fortress, was less often home to most of the legion. In the later Roman period, Chester was effectively a legionary fortress in name only, while military activity focussed on the northern frontiers, and appears to have been gradually abandoned from the start of the fourth century onwards.
Sources:
Caesar. The Conquest of Gaul. Translation by S. A. Handford. 1951. London: Penguin.
Creighton, J. 2006. Britannia: The Creation of a Roman Province. London and New York: Routledge.
De la Bédoyère, G. 2006. Roman Britain: A New History. London: Thames and Hudson.
Ellis, P. (ed). 2000. The Roman Baths and Macellum at Wroxeter: Excavations by Graham Webster 1955-85. English Heritage.
Gardner, J. F. 1982. ‘Introduction: Caesar as author’ In Caesar, The Conquest of Gaul London: Penguin.
Ireland, S. 1986. Roman Britain: A Sourcebook. London and Sydney: Croom Helm.
Mason, D. J. P. 2001. Roman Chester: City of Eagles. Stroud: Tempus.
Mattingly, D. 2006. An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, 54BC – AD409. London: Allen Lane/Penguin.
Meech, J. 2000. Shropshire Towns and Villages. Wilmslow: Sigma Leisure.
Tacitus, Annals. In S. Ireland. 1986. Roman Britain: A Sourcebook. London and Sydney: Croom Helm.
Wacher, J. 1974. The Towns of Roman Britain. London: B. T. Batsford.
Webster, G. 1975. The Cornovii. London: Duckworth.
White, R and P. Barker. 1998. Wroxeter: Life and Death of a Roman City. Stroud: Tempus.
Alice Leiper - I have a masters degree in the archaeology of the Classical Mediterranean, and a decade of experience writing fiction.
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