ABSTRACT

The word 'town' as applied to settlements in Roman Britain has become synonymous with fortified places of civilian character. The establishment of civitas capitals in Britain to act as the administrative centres for local government closely followed the pattern already established by the Romans in Gaul. Most of the newly constituted civitates were formed from Iron Age tribal groups. Development was chiefly left to the inclinations of the natives, although some governors, notably in the Flavian period, pursued a more active policy of Romanization and showed greater concern over the rate of progress. Only in the more bracing atmosphere following Hadrian's visit to Britain was interest revived and work resumed. Other alternatives might envisage the continuation of military government for the Comovii and delay until the Hadrianic period of the award of self-government, while the Corieltavi may have been, for a short time, administered from the colonia at Lincoln.