Spinis was a minor Romano-British roadside settlement on the Margary 53 road running between Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) and Cunetio (Mildenhall), listed as a station in the Antonine Itinerary (Iter XIV) between Calleva and Cunetio. It is generally identified with the area of Speen, just west of modern Newbury in Berkshire, and was likely active from the later 1st through the 4th century AD as a small wayside settlement or mansio servicing traffic on this important east–west route.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its principal role was as a posting station providing rest, change of horses, and accommodation for official and commercial travellers on the road linking the civitas capital of the Atrebates with the Wiltshire downs and the West. The name Spinis ("at the thorns/thorn-bushes") is purely topographic, suggesting a modest, functional settlement rather than a major administrative centre.
Evidence at Speen is limited: scattered finds of Roman pottery, coins, building debris, and occasional burials have been recorded in and around the village, but no systematic excavation has revealed the plan of the settlement, and the precise location of the mansio remains unconfirmed. The identification rests primarily on the itinerary distances rather than on substantial structural remains.
Spinis was a minor Romano-British roadside settlement on the Margary 53 road running between Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) and Cunetio (Mildenhall), listed as a station in the Antonine Itinerary (Iter XIV) between Calleva and Cunetio. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Spinis 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 Thatcham, Berkshire (4.8 km), Eling Roman villa (10.2 km), Littlecote (15.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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