Corinium Dobunnorum (modern Cirencester) was the civitas capital of the Dobunni tribe and, by the 4th century, probably the second-largest town in Roman Britain after Londinium. Founded c. AD 49 around an early Roman fort at the junction of the Fosse Way, Ermin Street and Akeman Street, it developed into a major civilian town from the late 1st century and remained occupied into the early 5th century, with some sub-Roman continuity.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As the administrative centre of the Dobunni and likely capital of the late Roman province of Britannia Prima (suggested by the inscribed Iupiter column base mentioning the governor Lucius Septimius), it was a key political, economic and route-network hub for the Cotswold region. Its wealthy hinterland of villas (Chedworth, Woodchester, North Leigh) supplied a notably prosperous urban centre, reflected in its mosaics and public works.
Excavations since the 19th century have revealed the forum-basilica, an exceptionally large amphitheatre on the south-western edge of town, the town wall circuit, town houses with high-quality mosaics (the Hare, Hunting Dogs, and Seasons pavements among them), and evidence for a local mosaic school ("Corinian school"). The Corinium Museum holds one of the richest assemblages of Romano-British sculpture, inscriptions and mosaic from any British town.
Corinium Dobunnorum (modern Cirencester) was the civitas capital of the Dobunni tribe and, by the 4th century, probably the second-largest town in Roman Britain after Londinium. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Corinium Roman town is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Korinion/Cironium (0.3 km), Sapperton and Cirencester amphitheatre (0.3 km), Tar Barrows: the earthwork and buried remains of two prehistoric or Roman round barrows and the buried remains of a Romano-British or earlier funerary and ritual site (1.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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