A HISTORY OF NORFOLK have been found in any one county has to deal with a division of land which for his purpose is wholly accidental and arbitrary. Norfolk, surrounded as it is on two sides by the sea and on a third side by the marshes of Fenland, may seem to be so isolated geographically, so well equipped with natural boundaries, that it might be expected to form an exception to this rule. Yet the boundaries of Norfolk coincide neither with the boundaries of the Celtic tribe who once dwelt in its area, the Iceni, nor with any known divisions of the Romans. The phrase Roman Norfolk is convenient, but strictly speaking it is a contradiction in terms. Norfolk, to the Roman student, is a meaningless area without unity : he can describe it, but he cannot write a history of it. With these facts in view, we propose in the following paragraphs to diverge somewhat from the plan which most county historians have followed in dealing with the Roman antiquities found in particular counties. They have generally narrated the chief events recorded by ancient writers as having occurred in Britain, and have pointed out which of these events may be supposed to have occurred within the county boundaries. They have tried to write a history : they have in reality done no more than produce a narrative of disconnected events, whilst leaving a wrong impression that somehow their county had in Roman times some sort of local individuality. We propose to begin, not with the ancient writers, but with the ancient remains, which, in- deed, are now more fully known and better appreciated than they were fifty or a hundred years ago. We shall try, first, to sketch the general character of the Roman province of Britain, its military, social and economic features : we shall next point out in detail how far the Roman antiquities of Norfolk illustrate this sketch ; that is, how far the district now called Norfolk, was an average bit of Roman Britain. The Roman occupation commenced in a.d. 43. At first its pro- gress was rapid. Within three or four years the Romans overran all the south and midlands as far as Exeter, Shrewsbury, and Lincoln : part was annexed, part left to ' protected ' native princes, among whom were the princes of the Iceni in Norfolk and Suffolk. Then came a pause : some thirty years were spent in reducing the hill tribes of Wales and York- shire, and during this period the ' protected ' principalities were gradually absorbed. The Iceni, for instance, were definitely incorporated into the province after the failure of the great rising led by their Queen Boudicca (Boadicea) in a.d. 61. About a.d. 80 the advance into Scotland was attempted : about 1 24 Hadrian built his Wall from Newcastle to Carlisle, and thereafter the Roman frontier was sometimes to the north, never to the south of this line. The ' province ' thus gained fell practically, though not officially, into two marked divisions, which coincide roughly with the lowlands occupied in the first years of the conquest and the hills which were tamed later. The former were the districts of settled civil life. The troops appear to have been very soon withdrawn from them, and, with a few definite exceptions, there was probably not a fort or fortress or military post throughout this part of our island. On the 280
