thdrawn or converted into a mere
_gendarmerie_, and under the shield of the _Pax Romana_, the towns
were as open as now. And as little as now did they look forward to
a time when each would have to become a strongly-held place of arms
girded in by massive ramparts, yet destined to prove all too weak
against the sweep of barbarian invasion.

C. 8.--On most of these sites continuous occupation for many
subsequent ages has blotted out the vestiges of their Roman day. Every
town has a tendency literally to bury its past; and the larger the
town the deeper the burial. Thus at London the Roman pavements, etc.
found are some twenty feet below the present surface, at Lincoln some
six or seven, and so forth. To learn how a Roman town was actually
laid out we must have recourse to those places which for some reason
have not been resettled since their destruction at the Anglo-Saxon
conquest, such as Wroxeter and Silchester, where the remains
accordingly lie only a foot or two below the ground. The former has
been little explored, but the latter has for the last ten years
been systematically excavated under the auspices of the Society of
Antiquaries, the portions unearthed being reburied year by year, after
careful examination and record.[224]

C. 9.--The greater part of the site has thus been already (1903) dealt
with; proving the town to have been laid out on a regular plan, with
straight streets dividing it, like an American city, into rectangular
blocks. Twenty-eight of these have, so far, been excavated. They are
from 100 to 150 yards in length and breadth, arranged, like the blocks
in a modern town, with houses all round, and a central space for
gardens, back-yards, etc. The remains found (including coins from
Caligula to Arcadius) prove that the site was occupied during the
whole of the Roman period. Originally it was, in all probability, one
of the towns built for the Britons by Agricola[225] on the distinctive
Roman pattern, with a central forum, town hall, baths, temples, and an
amphitheatre outside the city limits.

C. 10.--The forum was flanked by a vast basilica, no less than 325
feet in length by 125 in breadth, with apses of 39 feet radius.[226] A
smaller edifice of basilican type is generally supposed to have been
a Christian church. It stands east and west, and consists of a nave 30
feet long by 10 broad, flanked by 5-feet aisles, with a narthex of 7
feet (extending right across the building) at the east end, an