ABSTRACT
If one of the criteria for assessing the success of the Roman conquest of Britain is the extent to which the natives had accepted urban living, then by the end of the second century the imperial authorities might have reflected on some 150 years of considerable, if somewhat uneven, progress. Towns on something approaching the classical model were functioning in virtually all parts of the province. There were signs of a change in urban fortunes, however. London, the provincial capital, for example, and Verulamium both suffered setbacks after serious fires. In many other centres the growth of population had not been as rapid after the death of Hadrian (in 139) as it had been in the previous sixty years. Nevertheless, while the great surge to urbanisation was over, the second half of the second century witnessed one very significant development at the site of Rome’s most northerly military headquarters at York.1
