A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE in A.D. 48," and a portion of it may well have been at Leicester about the same time. The evidence of this legionary tile, such as it is, does not imply that Ratae was a permanent military station. Being on the road from the south to Lincoln, it is quite probable that a small party of soldiers was left there, and that this tile made by the legionary tile-makers was utilized in some building for the accommodation of the soldiery. This military occupation, however, was apparently only for a short period in the early years of the conquest, and did not affect the later history of the town, which was administrative and commercial. Ratae had not the privileges of the municipium of Verulam or the coloniae of Colchester, Lincoln, Gloucester, and York, but it had a municipal organi- zation of a lower kind, and was governed probably by the senate and magistrates of the tribe.* No doubt it had a forum with a basilica for the accommodation of magistrates, traders, and others, and possibly also baths ; and in the fourth century the town was protected by a wall. In size it was perhaps one of the smaller towns of its type, being about half the size of Silchester and much smaller than Wroxeter and Cirencester, but almost twice as large as Bath. Of its inhabitants we are practically without information. From the remains hitherto found there is nothing to indicate particular wealth or poverty, if anything they would point to prosperity without great wealth. The only indications of the occupation of the townsmen are three crucibles and bone-work which refer to trades which are common to all towns. The references to Ratae by Ptolemy, and that on the milestone at Thur- maston, show that the town was in existence in A.D. 1201 and this is corroborated by the evidence of the archaeological and architectural remains. The series of Roman coins begins with those of Caligula (A.D. 3741), but coins are not found in any quantities till we reach those of the late part of the first and the early part of the second centuries. The potters' marks on the Samian ware, which have been recorded, show a predominance of recognized marks of the first century (thirty-eight in number), but there are also a considerable quantity of the second century (thirty in number). The architectural details show more surely that probably by the time of Hadrian (A.D. 11738) Ratae had buildings of some architectural pretensions. The prosperity of the town apparently continued, and reached its height about the time of Constantine (A.D. 30637), for it is to this period that the greatest number of the coins and the greater but not the better part of the architectural details belong. Plan and Architectural Remains. Ratae appears to have been rectangular in shape, measuring from north to south 2, 780 ft. and from east to west i, 740 ft., the area being between forty and fifty acres, and the circumference nearly two miles. The mediaeval walls of Leicester ran along Soar Lane and Sanvy Gate on the north, Church Gate and Gallow-tree Gate on the east, Millstone Lane and Horsefair Street on the south, and there seems no reason to doubt that they were built on the foundations of the Roman walls, if indeed the Roman walls were not themselves utilized. Dr. Stukeley, writing in 1772, states that the line of the Roman walls and ditch were easily to be 3 Hflbner, Ephtm. Epfr. iv, 206. 4 Haverfield, 'The Romanization of Roman Britain,' Proc. of Brit. Acad, ii, 23. 182
