Veruiamium

Present-day St. Albans, Hertfordshire, southeast England. Normally reckoned to be the third largest Roman town in Britain and situated astride Watling Street, which it spanned with monumental gateways. Starting as a small fort near Verlamio, the capital of Tasciovanus, King of the Castuvellauni, Veruiamium was already by 60 AD a town sizeable enough to warrant the effort of sacking by Boudicca. Pre-60 ad shops show construction by wooden frame filled with clay, and traces of bronze-working. The attack of 60 ad seems to have caused only a short hiatus (perhaps some 15 years) and the town was rebuilt, only to be damaged again by fire in the middle of the 2nd century. By the end of the 1st century public buildings had been erected in stone, and now, after tjie second fire, these are followed by expensive stone-built private houses, boasting fine mosaic decoration. There is evidence also for bath buildings with hypocaust. The 4th century saw mosaics still being laid and repaired, and it looks as if the settlement maintained a Romano-British way of life well into the 5th century. Much of the Roman masonry and tiles was subsequently removed for use in the building of the Abbey dedicated to Alban, who is generally thought to be a Roman soldier martyred sometime early in the 3rd century. Much of the mosaic work is particularly interesting, and some stylistic features suggest perhaps a link with mosaicists at Colchester.