appellation, as most properly making the elbow or iken of Icenia.[B 1]
That Britain was notably populous is undeniable, from that expression of Cæsar.[A 1] That the Romans themselves were early in no small numbers (seventy thousand, with their associates,) slain by Boadicea, affords a sure account. And though many Roman habitations are now unknown, yet some, by old works, rampiers, coins, and urns, do testify their possessions. Some urns have been found at Castor, some also about Southcreak, and, not many years past, no less than ten in a field at Buxton,[A 2] not near any recorded garrison. Nor is it strange to find Roman coins of copper and silver among us; of Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian, Commodus, Antoninus, Severus, &c.; but the greater number of Diodesian, Constantine, Constans, Valens, with many of Victorinus Posthumius, Tetricus, and the thirty tyrants in the reign of Gallienus; and some as high as Adrianus have been found about Thetford, or Sitomagus, mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus, as the way from Venta or Castor unto London.[A 3] But the most frequent discovery is made at the two Castors by Norwich and Yarmouth[A 4] at Burghcastle, and Brancaster.[A 5]
Besides the Norman, Saxon, and Danish pieces of Cuthred, Canutus, William, Matilda,[A 6] and others, some British coins
- ↑ Hominum infinita multitudo est, creberrimaque; ædificia ferè Gallicis consimilia.—Cæs. de Bello Gal. l. 5.
- ↑ In the ground of my worthy friend Robert Jegon, Esq.; wherein some things contained were preserved by the most worthy Sir William Paston, Bart.
- ↑ From Castor to Thetford the Romans accounted thirty-two miles, and from thence observed not our common road to London, but passed by Combretonium ad Ansam, Canonium, Cæsaremagus,&c, by Bretenham, Coggeshall, Chelmsford, Brentwood, &c.
- ↑ Most at Castor by Yarmouth, found in a place called East-bloudy-burgh Furlong, belonging to Mr. Thomas Wood, a person of civility, industry, and knowledge in this way, who hath made observation of remarkable things about him, and from whom we have received divers silver and copper coins.
- ↑ Belonging to that noble gentleman, and true example of worth, Sir Ralph Hare, Bart, my honoured friend.
- ↑ A piece of Maud, the empress, said to be found in Buckenham Castle, with this inscription: Elle n' a elle.
- ↑ Now if the, &c.] That is to say "if iken (as well αγκων) signified an elbow—and thus, the Icenians were but "men that lived in an angle or elbow," then would the inhabitants of Norfolk have the best claim to the appellation, that county being most emphatically the elbow of Icenia But, unfortunately, iken does not signify an elbow; and it appears that the Iceni derived their name from the river Ouse, on whose banks they resided,— anciently called Iken, Yken, or Ycin. Whence, also, Ikenild-street, Ikenthorpe, Ikenworth.
