ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK' I. Introductory Sketch. 2. The Iceni, Icknield Street. 3. Places of settled occupation, town or village : the two Caisters. 4. Villas and Rural Dwellings. 5. Roads. 6. Military Posts : Brancaster. 7. Miscellaneous. 8. Alphabetical list of sites in Norfolk where Roman Remains have been found. I. Introductory Sketch FROM the Briton we pass to the Roman, from the prehistoric to the verge of history. With the Roman conquest our island began to be one of the countries known to us historically, and some at least of the persons who lived in it, and the events which occurred in it, have been definitely recorded in literature. Nevertheless Roman Britain has no history of its own ; for no country or person or thing can have a history unless it also possesses or has possessed a definite in- dividuality which has existed continuously for some perceptible period of time. It is not enough that the man or thing should have existed during a period known to us from history : there must have been, in some way or other, an independent existence and an independent unit. But Britain under the rule of the Roman Empire was merely one pro- vince, and in general an unimportant province, of a vast and complex state which stretched over three continents from the shores of ocean to the sands of the eastern seas. It had, indeed, marked characteristics of its own and striking incidents took place within it, and we can describe both of these in a more or less connected sketch ; but, in the full and real sense of the phrase, we cannot write a history of it. If this is true of Roman Britain as a whole, it is still more true of the part of it with which we are now concerned, the area which to-day is known as Norfolk. For in Roman days our island was not divided into the present counties nor into any districts geographically coincident with them. Neither the boundaries of the Celtic tribes, nor those of the Roman administrative areas, so far as we know them, agree with our existing county boundaries. He who studies the Roman remains that
- For the following article I have searched most of the literature myself and, so far as I could,
have visited the chief museums and sites. I have to thank various helpers, especially Sir John Evans, Mr. C. H. Read, Prof Rhys, Mr. Arthur Smith, Mr. W. H. Stevenson, Dr. Jessop, Mr. E. M. Beloe and others. I have also to acknowledge my obligations to an article on Roman Norfolk by Mr. G. E. Fox, published in the Arcbaolo^cal Journal for 1889 (xlvi. 331-349). Though sometimes differing from Mr. Fox in my conclusions, I have benefited by his work in many points, which I have tried to in- dicate in detail. I have also consulted with profit the Dawson Turner drawings in the British Museum (MSS. Add. 23,013-23,062). 279
