Gloucestershire, England
Classical Corinium; county town of the Dobunni and capital of the late Roman province of Britannia Prima
The Dobunni, the Celtic tribe that inhabited the Severn Valley, accepted Roman rule without fuss in AD 43. A generation later they abandoned their tribal centre at Bagendon in favour of a new foundation five kilometres (three miles) to the south, which became their ‘civitas-capital’, to use the currently favoured term for a Roman county town. The original nucleus was a pair of Roman forts set up in the 40s and occupied until the late 70s. The new city quickly acquired a grandiose basilica, the second largest in the country after LONDON’S, and a large amphitheatre that can still be seen.
During the third century AD the city was given a defensive wall. The area enclosed, ninety-seven hectares, makes it the second largest town in Roman Britain (London, with 135 hectares, was the largest). In Diocletian’s reorganization of the provinces in the early fourth century it became the seat of the governor of the new province of Britannia Prima. The forum area was modified at this time, presumably to accommodate the governor’s entourage; the city, as judged by the number of mosaic pavements installed in the early fourth century, was more prosperous than ever. A reasonable guess at the population would be somewhere in the region of 5,000.
Cirencester’s prosperity seems to have lasted into the early fifth century, but the city must have declined rapidly thereafter. It has been suggested that such inhabitants as survived into the sixth century – and we are talking now of a few score, not a few thousand – may have taken refuge in the amphitheatre just outside the city wall. This structure, suitably fortified, is probably the ‘city of Cirencester’ that fell to the west Saxons after their victory over the Britons at Dyrham in 577.