AD 43-410 Roman

In the 1st century AD most of central England was inhabited by the Corieltauvi, whose territories covered the modern counties of Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, and the Cornovii whose lands were towards the Welsh border. Hemmed in by more powerful tribes and living mostly in scattered homesteads, the people were not particularly warlike and offered little resistance to the Romans.

As part of the Roman campaign to pacify Wales and the northern tribes, they built roads and garrisons across the midlands. In the 50s AD, the Legion XIV Gemina was based at Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter) in Shropshire to guard the Welsh borders. During the 60s, the IXth Legion was sent to Lindum (Lincoln), which became a coloniafor the Legion’s veterans. Ratae Coritanorum (Leicester), where a Roman fort was built near a native settlement, became a civitas– a self-governing town of non-Roman citizens.

During the late 1st and the early 2nd century, some towns experienced a building boom. Remains of massive bath complexes survive in both Lincoln and Leicester. At Wroxeter an inscription survives from the gateway to the forum dedicated to the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-38) by the civitasof the Cornovii. However, by 410 when the Roman army and administration left Britain, the towns were in decline and the area reverted to small, scattered farmsteads.