86 Antoninus' Itinerary of Britain is a most valuable remain of antiquity. It was probably composed at the command of some of the Roman emperors who bore the name of Antoninus, though some additions might be made to it afterwards, when new military ways were laid, and new towns and stations built. It seems to have been designed in general to give the Roman emperors and their civil and military officers a distinct idea of the situation, extent, and principal places of the several provinces of that prodigious empire; and in particular to be a directory to the Roman troops in their marches. (Henry's Hist. of Britain, vol. ii, Appx. 417; Lond. 8vo, 1788.) Another Itinerary of Britain, of considerable antiquity and value, is that of Richard of Cirencester, a monk of Westminster, who flourished in the fourteenth century. In his treatise on the ancient state of Britain (book i, cap. 7), he informs us that "his Itinerary is collected from certain fragments left by a Roman general"-alluding, we presume, to the above-mentioned Itinerary of Antoninus. "The order," he continues, "is changed, in some instances, according to Ptolemy and others, and, it is hoped, with improvement." |