Eboracum

Eboracum was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britannia and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimately developed into the present-day city of York, in North Yorkshire, England.
Two Roman emperors died in Eboracum: Septimius Severus in 211 AD, and Constantius Chlorus in 306 AD.
The first known recorded mention of Eboracum by name is dated, and is an address containing the settlement's name, Eburaci, on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in what is now Northumberland. During the Roman period, the name was written both Eboracum and Eburacum.
The name Eboracum comes from the Common Brittonic *Eburākon, of disputed meaning. One view is that it meant "yew tree place", if Proto-Celtic *ebura meant "yew", combined with the proprietive suffix *-āko "having" . Other linguists, such as Andrew Breeze and Peter Schrijver, dispute the etymological connection of *eburos and "yew"; Schrijver suggests that *eburos meant "rowan", and that *iwo, giving Welsh yw and Old Irish éo, was the only Proto-Celtic word for "yew". Schrijver has suggested that the derivation from Latin ebur instead refers to boar's tusks. The name was Latinized by replacing the Celtic neuter nominative ending -on by its Latin equivalent -um, a common use noted also in Gaul and Lusitania. Various place names, such as Évry, Ivry, Ivrey, Ivory and Ivrac in France would all come from *eburacon / *eburiacon; for example: Ivry-la-Bataille, Ivry-le-Temple, and Évry.

Origins

The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD, but advance beyond the Humber did not take place until the early 70s AD. This was because the people in the area, known as the Brigantes by the Romans, became a Roman client state. When Brigantian leadership changed, becoming more hostile to Rome, Roman general Quintus Petillius Cerialis led the Ninth Legion north from Lincoln across the Humber. Eboracum was founded in 71 AD when Cerialis and the Ninth Legion constructed a military fortress on flat ground above the River Ouse near its junction with the River Foss. In the same year, Cerialis was appointed Governor of Britain.
A legion at full strength at that time numbered some 5,500 men, and provided new trading opportunities for enterprising local people, who doubtless flocked to Eboracum to take advantage of them. As a result, permanent civilian settlement grew up around the fortress especially on its south-east side. Civilians also settled on the opposite side of the Ouse, initially along the main road from Eboracum to the south-west. By the later 2nd century, growth was rapid; streets were laid out, public buildings were erected and private houses spread out over terraces on the steep slopes above the river.

Military

From its foundation the Roman fort of Eboracum was aligned on a north-east/south-east bearing on the north bank of the River Ouse. It measured 1,600 × 1,360 pedes monetales and covered an area of. The standard layout of streets running through the castra is assumed, although some evidence exists for the via praetoria, via decumana and via sagularis. Much of the modern understanding of the fortress defences has come from extensive excavations undertaken by L. P. Wenham.
The layout of the fortress also followed the standard for a legionary fortress, with wooden buildings inside a square defensive boundary. These defences, originally consisting of turf ramparts on a green wood foundation, were built by the Ninth Legion between 71 and 74 AD. Later these were replaced by a clay mound with a turf front on a new oak foundation, and eventually, wooden battlements were added, which were then replaced by limestone walls and towers. The original wooden camp was refurbished by Agricola in 81, before being completely rebuilt in stone between 107 and 108. The fortress was garrisoned soon afterwards by the Sixth Legion, possibly as soon as 118.
Multiple phases of restructuring and rebuilding within the fortress are recorded. Rebuilding in stone began in the early second century AD under Trajan, but may have taken as long as the start of the reign of Septimius Severus to be completed; a period of over 100 years. Estimates suggest that over 48,000 m³ of stone were required, largely consisting of Magnesian Limestone from the quarries near the Roman settlement of Calcaria.

Visiting emperors

There is evidence that the Emperor Hadrian visited in 122 on his way north to plan his great walled frontier. He either brought, or sent earlier, the Sixth Legion to replace the existing garrison. Emperor Septimius Severus visited Eboracum in 208 and made it his base for campaigning in Caledonia. The Imperial court was based in York until at least 211, when Severus died and was succeeded by his sons, Caracalla and Geta. A biographer, Cassius Dio, described a scene in which the Emperor utters the final words to his two sons on his death bed: "Agree with each other, make the soldiers rich, and ignore everyone else." Severus was cremated in Eboracum shortly after his death. Dio described the ceremony: "His body arrayed in military garb was placed upon a pyre, and as a mark of honour the soldiers and his sons ran about it and as for the soldier's gifts, those who had things at hand to offer them put them upon it and his sons applied the fire."
In the later 3rd century, the western Empire experienced political and economic turmoil and Britain was for some time ruled by usurpers independent of Rome. It was after crushing the last of these that Emperor Constantius I came to Eboracum and, in 306, became the second Emperor to die there. His son Constantine was instantly proclaimed as successor by the troops based in the fortress. Although it took Constantine eighteen years to become sole ruler of the Empire, he may have retained an interest in Eboracum and the reconstruction of the south-west front of the fortress with polygonally-fronted interval towers and the two great corner towers, one of which still survives, is probably his work. In the colonia, Constantine's reign was a time of prosperity and a number of extensive stone town houses of the period have been excavated.

Government

For the Romans, Eboracum was the major military base in the north of Britain and, following the 3rd century division of the province of Britannia, the capital of northern Britain, Britannia Inferior. By 237 Eboracum had been made a colonia, the highest legal status a Roman city could attain; there were only four coloniae in Britain, and all but Eboracum had been founded for retired soldiers. This mark of Imperial favour was probably a recognition of Eboracum as the largest town in the north and the capital of Britannia Inferior. At around the same time Eboracum became self-governing, with a council made up of rich locals, including merchants and veteran soldiers. In 296 Britannia Inferior was divided into two provinces of equal status with Eboracum becoming the provincial capital of Britannia Secunda.

Culture

As a busy port and a provincial capital Eboracum was a cosmopolitan city with residents from throughout the Roman Empire.

Diet

Substantial evidence for the use of cereal crops and animal husbandry can be found in Eboracum. A first-century warehouse fire from Coney Street, on the North bank of the Ouse and outside the fortress, showed that spelt wheat was the most common cereal grain used at that time, followed by barley. Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were the major sources of meat. Hunting scenes, as shown through Romano-British "hunt cups", suggest hunting was a popular pastime and that diet would be supplemented through the hunting of hare, deer and boar. A variety of food preparation vessels have been excavated from the city and large millstones used in the processing of cereals have been found in rural sites outside the colonia at Heslington and Stamford Bridge.
In terms of the ceremonial use of food; dining scenes are used on tombstones to represent an aspirational image of the deceased in the afterlife, reclining on a couch and being served food and wine. The tombstones of Julia Velva, Mantinia Maercia and Aelia Aeliana each depict a dining scene. Additionally, several inhumation burials from Trentholme Drive contained hen's eggs placed in ceramic urns as grave goods for the deceased.

Religion

A range of evidence of Roman religious beliefs among the people of Eboracum have been found including altars to Mars, Hercules, Jupiter and Fortune. In terms of number of references, the most popular deities were the spiritual representation of Eboracum and the Mother Goddess. There is also evidence of local and regional deities. Evidence showing the worship of eastern deities has also been found during excavations in York. For example, evidence of the Mithras cult, which was popular among the military, has been found including a sculpture showing Mithras slaying a bull and a dedication to Arimanius, the god of evil in the Mithraic tradition. The Mithraic relief located in Micklegate suggests the location of a temple to Mithras right in the heart of the Colonia. Another example is the dedication of a temple to Serapis a Hellenistic-Egyptian God by the Commander of the Sixth Legion, Claudius Hieronymianus. Other known deities from the city include: Tethys, Veteris, Venus, Silvanus, Toutatis, Chnoubis and the Imperial Numen.
There was also a Christian community in Eboracum although it is unknown when this was first formed and in archaeological terms there is virtually no record of it. The first evidence of this community is a document noting the attendance of Bishop Eborius of Eboracum at the Council of Arles. The Episcopal see at Eboracum was called Eboracensis in Latin and Bishops from the See also attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the Council of Serdica, and the Council of Ariminum. The name is preserved in the abbreviated form Ebor as the official name of the archbishop of York.