VERULAMIUM
Near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England.
A pre-Roman and Romano-British town and chief center of the Catuvellauni, 33 km NW of
London on Watling Street. The Roman town now lies
beneath open country and has been available for excavation: there is a good museum on the site. The name
Verlamio first appears as mint mark on coins of Tasciovanus (ca. 20 B.C-A.D. 5), and the pre-Roman oppidum
is today represented by various earthworks extending
well beyond the Roman walls: one of its cemeteries was excavated in 1966-68.
The Roman site was first occupied by a military post
ca. A.D. 43-44; civil buildings and a rectangular street-grid were laid out ca. A.D. 50, and were probably from
the first surrounded by a bank and ditch enclosing
47.6 ha. The town may well have had the status of a
Latin municipium (Tac.
Ann. 14.33). Excavation in
Insula XIV has revealed a row of shops, originally under
a single roof and therefore probably under single ownership. The building technique, timber framing filled with
clay, was new to British builders and is evidence for
the part played by the Roman army in the government's
urbanizing program in the new province. Some of the
shops were occupied by bronzeworkers. These buildings
and others were destroyed in the rebellion of Boudicca
in A.D. 60-61. The shops were not rebuilt for 15 years:
they rose again under Vespasian, to whom the large
new forum was dedicated with an inscription of A.D. 79,
mentioning the governor Julius Agricola (cf. Tac.
Agr.
21). It was a building of unusual plan, more closely resembling the forums of Roman Gaul than the normal principia type of Roman Britain. The Flavian period
also saw the construction of a masonry shopping precinct and temple; domestic and commercial buildings were still half-timbered.
Towards the end of the reign of Antoninus Pius
Verulamium was again devastated by fire; the remains
of the half-timbered buildings roofed in thatch or
shingles have yielded frescos now in the museum. The
city, however, was full of vigor; it had already expanded beyond its 1st c. defenses, and now the forum was rebuilt, a theater of Gallo-Roman type was provided for the temple ceremonies, and for the first time
large courtyard houses of 30 or 40 rooms are found. It
is possible that there was a local firm of mosaicists at
this date, whose products have also been found in nearby
villas and at Colchester. Towards the end of the 2d c.
a new defensive bank and ditch with masonry gateways
was laid out to enclose 90 ha, but not finished; this may
date from the rebellion of Albinus. Though no material
traces of Christianity have been found with the exception
of a possible cemetery church outside the London gate, it
is certain that the martyrdom of St. Alban occurred at
Verulamium, possibly in A.D. 208-209. In the 3d c. a
town wall was built, excluding part of the area formerly
embanked and enclosing only 80 ha. Earlier theories
about the devastating effects of the 3d c. economic crisis
have not been confirmed by recent excavations.
In the early 4th c. many 2d c. structures were replaced, and again many mosaics were laid. Substantial
houses continued to be built or altered until almost 400,
and only with the 5th c. is there any sign of decline.
During that century a corn-drying oven was inserted into
a large mosaic in Insula XXVII, suggesting insecurity in
the surrounding farmlands; but the same site yielded
evidence for two further structural phases that leave
no doubt that urban life was maintained behind the
walls until at least 450. Thereafter evidence ceases, for
the upper levels have been mostly ploughed away. In
time, with the breakdown of commerce and of the food
supply, the city became deserted, but the absence of
early Saxon settlements and burials in the neighboring
region points to the maintenance of Romano-British rule
during the 5th c. Later, with the revival of the shrine
of St. Alban on the opposite hill, a new town sprang up
on a different site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R.E.M. & T. V. Wheeler,
Verulamium,
a Belgic and Two Roman Cities (1936); S. S. Frere,
interim reports in
AntJ 36-42 (1956-62); id., “Verulamium, Three Roman Towns,”
Antiquity 38 (1964)
103-12; id.,
Verulamium Excavations 1955-61 I (1972);
I. Stead, “Verulamium 1966-8,”
Antiquity 43 (1969)
45-52.
S. S. FRERE
