A HISTORY OF NORFOLK family as well as a part of his private wealth. He did not succeed : the Roman government stepped in and annexed his kingdom, while its officials emphasized the loss of freedom by acts of avarice, bad faith and brutality against Boudicca (Boadicea), the widow of Prasutagus, her daughters and the Icenian nobles. The governor of the province was, at the moment or soon after, absent fighting in North Wales : the Iceni rose, Boudicca at their head, and with them rose half southern Britain. A Roman army, three Roman towns, some seventy thousand lives were devoured by the flame of their fury : then the governor, hurrying back from Wales, routed the Britons in one great fight. The conquered were savagely hunted down, till severity defeated its own object and even Romans protested. Fire and the sword and famine went through the lands of the insurgents, and it may well be that this devastation helped to produce that infrequency of Romano-British life which characterized the Icenian districts in later days. Certainly we hear no more of the Iceni. They and their territory were merged in the Roman province, and even their name lingered only round one or perhaps two spots. It served to distinguish Venta Icenorum from Venta Belgarum in Hampshire and Venta Silurum in Monmouth. It may also lurk concealed in the ' Icinos ' or ' Icianos ' — the former is read by the better manuscripts — which the Itinerary places fifty-five miles from Colchester on the way to Lincoln. Unfortunately the route of the Itinerary is in this case obscure. ' Icinos ' has been plausibly identified with such diverse sites as Venta Icenorum in Norfolk, Stow Langtoft and Ixworth in Suffolk, Chesterford in Essex, and for the present conjectures about it may be best withheld. Thus much may be said, that, if ' Icinos ' is a corruption of ' Icenos,' we can easiest explain the name, as a mere name, by taking it to be the accusative of 'Iceni' and an abbreviation of 'Venta Icenorum ' (see p. 300). It could not, I think, be explained as equivalent to ' Fines Icenorum.' Antiquaries have found, however, a more famous survival of the name. There is an ancient track or road now known as Icknield Street, but called in early charters Icenhylt or Icenhilde weg (or str^t). This road has been classed as a principal Roman road : its course has been imagined to reach from western Berkshire to Norwich, and its name has been explained as the ' warpath ' or highway of the Iceni. Places on or near its assumed line, Icklingham in Suffolk, Ickleton in Cambridge- shire, and Ickleford in Hertfordshire, have been enlisted to support this etymology : they were, according to one theory, originally Iceningham, Icenton, Icenford, and indicate that Iceni once dwelt or marched in their neighbourhood. So far as our present evidence goes, this is all baseless guesswork. The Icknield Street, in the first instance, is not a Roman road : only a few parts of its assumed course connect Roman sites to- gether. And, secondly, it has nothing to do with the Iceni or Norfolk or Suffolk. Its western section can alone be traced with real certainty : there it is a trackway of immemorial origin, passing along the almost continuous scarp formed by the north face of the Berkshire downs and the Chilterns. Further east, its course and indeed its existence is more 286
