North E.ast s ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK of the late third or the fourth century, and Spelman mentions two bronze vases found with coins, possibly a hoard/ Beyond the fact that it was one of the forts of the Saxon Shore in the fourth century, the history of the place is quite unknown. The square or nearly square shape and the rounded angles of the fort have been adduced to prove that it was first erected in the early part of the Roman occupation, and they are not inconsistent with that notion, though they assuredly do not prove it. The recorded coins, were they more numerous, might also indicate that the site was early occu- pied, if not fortified. It were easy to conjecture that the fort and the Peddar's Way were alike constructed after the in- surrection of A.D. 6 1 to hold the district down. On the other hand the bastions attri- buted to the east gate would probably be fourth-century work. We require excava- tion, as so often in Norfolk : till the spade helps us, we can Pavcmcnt hardly do more than affirm /"u-^tJ-i that here in the fourth century stood a fort. The next fort of the Saxon Shore in geographical order is Gariannonum, Burgh Castle near Yarmouth, warder of the waterways which the Waveney and the Yare open into the heart of the eastern counties. It is itself in Suffolk, and we need not describe here its massive and stately ruins. But detached forts in connection with it have been supposed at two sites in Norfolk — Caister-by- Yarmouth and Reedham on the Yare, and a word is due to them in this context. Neither place, so far as the present writer can judge, deserves on the evidence of recorded discoveries to be called a military site. At Caister many Roman remains have been found, but no trace of fortifications (see p. 293). At Reedham there are said to have been earthworks once, but no record of their character survives, and earthworks, of whatever character, can hardly be connected with the fourth century. Besides, the Roman coins found at Reedham I Camden (ed. Gough, 1 806) ii. 1 79, 1 97 ; Spelman's Icenia {Posthumous Works, p. 1 48) ; Blomefield, X. 298 ; Archaologia, xii. 134, xxiii. 361 ; Norwich vol. of the Arch. Institute, pp. 9-16 ; Journal of the British Arch. Association, xxxvi. 1 1 5 and Corpus Inscriftionum Latin., vii. 1,307 (inscribed ring) ; C. Roach Smith, Collectanea antiqua, vii. 159 ; Dawson Turner, MS. 23,026, p. 104 (Mercury and coins of Pius, Carausius and Chlorus, found 1 806). A few objects of no great importance are in the Norwich Museum. What the ' copper-gilt ensign ' found in 1763 may be (Gentleman's Magazine (1779), ii. 591) I do not know. Wisbech Museum has seven ' Third Brass ' of Carausius from Brancaster. ScAUE. or hLcT Tlit Frc. 19. Fig. 20.
