Viroconium Cornoviorum (modern Wroxeter, Shropshire) was the civitas capital of the Cornovii and grew to become one of the largest cities in Roman Britain, perhaps the fourth largest by area at around 173 acres. It originated as a legionary fortress in the mid-1st century AD (housing the XIV Gemina and later XX Valeria Victrix), was redeveloped as a civilian town from the early 2nd century, and remained occupied into the 5th and possibly 6th centuries, with notable post-Roman timber rebuilding.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As the administrative centre for the Cornovii, Viroconium served the central Welsh Marches and acted as a key node on Watling Street linking the midlands to the Welsh frontier. Its unusually long survival after the formal end of Roman Britain — including the construction of substantial timber buildings on the basilica site in the late 5th/6th century — makes it one of the most important sites for understanding sub-Roman urban continuity.
The site has seen extensive excavation since the 19th century, most famously revealing the forum (with its dedicatory inscription to Hadrian, dated AD 129–130) and the adjacent public baths, whose surviving "Old Work" wall is the largest free-standing piece of Roman masonry in Britain. Philip Barker's meticulous excavations of the baths basilica in the 1960s–90s identified a sequence of late and post-Ro
Viroconium Cornoviorum (modern Wroxeter, Shropshire) was the civitas capital of the Cornovii and grew to become one of the largest cities in Roman Britain, perhaps the fourth largest by area at around 173 acres. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Viroconium 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 Wroxeter Roman fort (1.2 km), Uffington Roman Temporary Camp, Shrewsbury (5.7 km), Abutment of Roman bridge at Radnor Bridge (7.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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