Paul Chrystal - A Historical Guide to Roman York

A HISTORICAL GUIDE TO ROMAN YORK

In the earliest records of English History, Ebor, Eboracum or York, is represented as a place of great importance; and, in the zenith of meridian splendour, it was the residence of Imperial Power, and the legislative seat of the Roman Empire. Hence we may readily suppose, especially when the ancient historic accounts of this city are contrasted with those of London, that York far exceeded in dignity and consequence, if not in population and extent, the present capital of the British Empire, at that period .

William Hargrove, History of York , 1818

To the memory of Frank Norman (19132000), my classics professor at the University of Hull 19731976

PAUL CHRYSTAL

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

PEN AND SWORD HISTORY

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Paul Chrystal, 2021

ISBN 978 1 52678 128 4

eISBN 978 1 52678 129 1

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52678 129 1

The right of Paul Chrystal to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

E-mail:

Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Or

PEN AND SWORD BOOKS

1950 Lawrence Rd, Havertown, PA 19083, USA

E-mail: Uspen-and

Website: www.penandswordbooks.com

No book is the work of one man or woman. This one certainly is not. Thanks are due to a number of people and associations who have helped me make this book a lot better than it would have been without their generous interventions. They are, in no particular order: Martin Drake for map 001; York Archaeological Trust for the photos relating to the Headless gladiators excavations; Richard Saward, Head of Visitor Experience and Commercial and Andrew Woods, Senior Curator (Yorkshire Museum) at the Yorkshire Museum in York, as well as Rebecca Vickers who painstakingly sourced all the photos for us; Geoff Cook, Rheolwr Cynadleddau a Digwyddiadau (Conference and Events Manager), Neuadd Y Ddinas (City Hall) Caerdydd (Cardiff) for the image of the wonderful statue of Boudica; The Schiller Inc, Washington DC, for the Thomas Cole Destruction image; Professor Paul Readman, Department of History, Kings College London for permission to use material from the Historic Pageants website relating to the York Pageant: www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/ .

As always we have tried our hardest to obtain permission for anything which is or may be in copyright; if anything has slipped through the net please accept our apologies and do advise us so that we can ensure that due credit is given in any reprint or new edition.

Paul Chrystal was educated at the universities of Hull and Southampton where he took degrees in Classics. For the past thirty-five years he has worked in medical publishing, much of the time as an international sales director for one market or another while latterly creating medical educational programmes for the pharmaceutical industry.

He has since been history advisor to local visitor attractions such as the National Trust in York and Yorks Chocolate Story, writing features for national newspapers, and broadcasting on BBC Radio York, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Tees, on the Radio 4 PM programme and on the BBC World Service.

He is a contributor to a number of newspapers, history and archaeology magazines and the author of over 120 books published since 2010 on a wide range of subjects including classical social and military history, pandemics and epidemics, social histories of chocolate, coffee, sweets and tea, the British Army of the Rhine, the Troubles, transport and local history of many towns and cities in Yorkshire, Durham and Greater Manchester.

He is a regular reviewer for and contributor to Classics for All, editorial advisor for Yale University Press and a contributor to the classics section of Bibliographies Online published by Oxford University Press.

In 2020, he took over the history editorship of the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal , the journal of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society. In 2019, he was guest speaker for Vassar College New Yorks London Programme in association with Goldsmith University. In 2021 he assisted in the research for an episode of the BBCs Who Do You Think You Are?

www.paulchrystal.com

By the same author

The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Epidemics, Plagues & Poxes: from the Plague of Athens to COVID-19 (in press 2021)

Women at War in the Ancient World (2020)

War in Greek Myth (2020)

War in Roman Myth and Legend (2020)

The Romans in the North of England (2019)

Republic into Empire: the 1st Century BCE Civil Wars in Ancient Rome (2019)

Wars and Battles of Ancient Greece (2018)

Emperors of Rome: The Monsters from Tiberius to Elagabalus (2018)

Roman Record Keeping & Communications (2018)

How to be a Roman: A Day in the Life of a Roman Family (2017)

Women in Ancient Greece: Seclusion, Exclusion, or Illusion? (2017)

When in Rome: A Social History of Rome (2017)

In Bed with the Ancient Greeks (2016)

Roman Military Disasters (2016)

The Ancient Greeks in 100 Facts (2016)

Wars and Battles of the Roman Republic (2015)

In Bed with the Romans (2015)

Roman Women: The Women Who Influenced Roman History (2015)

Women in Ancient Rome (2015)

Ptolemy: Prima Europe Tabula (1486)

One of the earliest surviving copies of Ptolemys second-century map of the British Isles. Originally published in Ptolemys Geographia . This is the second issue of the 1482 map, printed at Ulm, which was the first woodcut map of the British Isles and the first to be printed outside Italy. ( National Library of Wales )

Roman York