Viroconium Cornoviorum

(Wroxeter)

A town in Britannia (Shropshire, western England), situated on the north-south highway, Watling Street, at the point where the river Sabrina (Severn) emerges from the foothills of Wales and turns southward toward its estuary in the Bristol Channel. On the summit of adjoining Wrekin Hill stood an important Iron Age fortress. After Roman annexation, Viroconium was strategically placed for operations against Caratacus, who had raised the Welsh tribes in revolt, and may have been occupied c 50 AD by Publius Ostorius Scapula, appointed to suppress him. A little later a legion was moved there, to constitute a garrison, and was replaced by another in 69.

Army units remained until c 90, when they departed (although perhaps a small detachment stayed on), whereupon Viroconium became a civilian city and the capital of the Cornovii. Benefiting from a visit in 122 by Hadrian (who upgraded the frontier towns), it formed one of the most important towns in Britain during the ensuing decades. At the time of the usurpation of Carausius (c 286), or shortly afterward, its buildings suffered destruction by fire; but life continued vigorously, in new forms and conditions, until the end of the western empire, or later; a tomb of the Irish chieftain Cunorix—presumably a mercenary employed to repel marauders—is dateable to the late fifth century. Soon afterward, the site was abandoned in favor of a smaller and more easily defensible location.

A stone rampart dates from the time of the legionary fortress (c 85). After the departure of the legion, work was begun on the construction of a large bathing establishment shortly before 100. But it was swept away in the time of Hadrian, and replaced by a spacious forum, surrounded by an aisled basilica and shops; an inscription records the dedication of the forum by the Cornovii in 129/130. After the middle of the century, perhaps following a fire (although the exact chronology is disputed), more elaborate new public baths, an enlarged shopping quarter, and a temple were constructed. Air photography has also shown a number of substantial private houses and an aqueduct. The latest excavations have concentrated on the site of a macellum (provision market). At the same time, it has become clear that the bath block and basilica were disused from the end of the second century, and later demolished in stages; although an earth rampart of later second century date, enclosing a perimeter of about two hundred acres, was augmented soon after 200 by a stone wall. About 400 all the flimsy timber structures of the area were destroyed, and massive new timber buildings, often of two storeys, were erected: it has been suggested that this drastic clearing and replanning operation, conducted in two successive phases, may have been organized by some chief seeking to establish his local power in the disturbed circumstances of the time.