age and the material civilization of the
province of Britain. I pass to a third and harder question, the
administrative and legal framework of local Romano-British life. Here we
have to discuss the extent to which the Roman town-system of the
_colonia_ and _municipium_, and the Roman land-system of the _villa_
penetrated Britain. And, first, as to the towns. Britain, we know,
contained five municipalities of the privileged Italian type. The
_colonia_ of Camulodunum (Colchester) and the _municipium_ of Verulamium
(St. Albans), both in the south-east of the island, were established
soon after the Claudian conquest. The _colonia_ of Lindum (Lincoln) was
probably founded in the early Flavian period (A.D. 70-80), when the
Ninth Legion, hitherto at Lincoln, was probably pushed forward to York.
The _colonia_ at Glevum (Gloucester) arose in A.D. 96-98, as an
inscription seems definitely to attest. Lastly, the _colonia_ at
Eburacum (York) must have grown up during the second or the early third
century, under the ramparts of the legionary fortress, though separated
from it by the intervening river Ouse.[1] Each of these five towns had,
doubtless, its dependent _ager attributus_, which may have been as large
as an average English county, and each provided the local government
for its territory.[2] That implies a definitely Roman form of local
government for a considerable area--a larger area, certainly, than
received such organization in northern Gaul. Yet it accounts, on the
most liberal estimate, for barely one-eighth of the civilized part of
the province.

[Footnote 1: The fortress was situated on the left or east bank of the
Ouse close to the present cathedral, which stands wholly within its
area. Parts of the Roman walls can still be traced, especially at the
so-called Multangular Tower. The municipality lay on the other (west)
bank of the Ouse, near the railway station, where various mosaics
indicate dwelling-houses. Its outline and plan are, however, not known.
Even its situation has not been generally recognized.]

[Footnote 2: If the evidence of milestones may be pressed, the
'territory' of Eburacum extended southwards at least twenty miles to
Castleford, and that of Lincoln at least fourteen miles to Littleborough
(_Ephemeris Epigraphica_, vii. 1105=ix. 1253, where the last two lines
are AVGG EB|MP XX (or XXII), and vii. 1097). The general size of these
municipal 'territoria' is amply proved by Continental inscriptions.