With its apparently complete town plan, revealed by the Society of
Antiquaries of London's great excavation project, 1890-1909,
Silchester is one of the best known towns in Roman Britain and the
Roman world more widely. Since the 1970s excavations by the author
and the University of Reading on several sites including the
amphitheatre, the defences, the forum basilica, the public baths, a
temple and an extensive area of an entire insula, as well as
surveys of the suburbs and immediate hinterland, have radically
increased our knowledge of the town and its development over time
from its origins to its abandonment. This research has discovered
the late Iron Age oppidum and allowed us to characterise the nature
of the settlement with its strong Gallic connections and widespread
political and trading links across southern Britain, to Gaul and to
southern Europe and the Mediterranean. Following a review of the
evidence for the impact of the Roman conquest of A.D. 43/44, the
settlement's transformation into a planned Roman city is traced,
and its association with the Emperor Nero is explored. With the
re-building in masonry of the great forum basilica in the early
second century, the city reached the peak of its physical
development. Defence building, first in earthwork, then in stone in
the later third century are major landmarks of the third century,
but the town can be shown to have continued to flourish, certainly
up to the early fifth century and the end of the Roman
administration of Britain. The enigma of the Silchester ogham stone
is explored and the story of the town and its transformation to
village is taken up to the fourteenth century. Modern
archaeological methods have allowed us to explore a number of
themes demonstrating change over time, notably the built and
natural environments of the town, the diet, dress, health, leisure
activities, living conditions, occupations and ritual behaviour of
the inhabitants, and the role of the town as communications centre,
economic hub and administrative centre of the tribal 'county' of
the Atrebates.
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