Some historians would date to this period the pillar erected by the governor Lucius Septimus to the god Jupiter, a local sign of the pagan reaction against Christianity during the principate of Julian the Apostate. The details of the provinces of Britain following the Diocletian Reforms around 296 remain unclear, but Corinium is now generally thought to have been the capital of Britannia Prima. When a wall was built around the Roman city in the late 2nd century, it enclosed 240 acres (1 km²), making Corinium the second-largest city by area in Britain. There are many Roman remains in the surrounding area, including several Roman villas near the villages of Chedworth and Withington. A large forum and basilica were built over the site of the fort, and archaeological evidence shows signs of further civic growth. When the frontier moved to the north after the conquest of Wales, this fort was closed and its fortifications levelled around the year 70, but the town persisted and flourished under the name Corinium.Įven in Roman times, there was a thriving wool trade and industry, which contributed to the growth of Corinium. The Romans built a fort where the Fosse Way crossed the Churn, to hold two quingenary alae tasked with helping to defend the provincial frontier around AD 49, and native Dobunni were drawn from Bagendon, a settlement 3 miles (5 km) to the north, to create a civil settlement near the fort. Albans and Colchester, and the town includes evidence of significant area roadworks. The town serves as a centre for surrounding villages, providing employment, amenities, shops, commerce and education it is a commuter town for larger centres such as Cheltenham, Gloucester, Swindon and Stroud.Ĭirencester is known to have been an important early Roman area, along with St. The area and population of these five electoral wards are identical to that quoted above. Other suburbs include Bowling Green and New Mills. The village of Siddington to the south of the town is now almost contiguous with Watermoor. The town is split into five main areas: the town centre, the village of Stratton, the suburb of Chesterton (originally a village outside the town), Watermoor and The Beeches. The Thames itself rises just a few miles west of Cirencester. Natural drainage is into the River Churn, which flows roughly north to south through the eastern side of the town and joins the Thames near Cricklade, a little to the south. Ĭirencester lies on the lower dip slopes of the Cotswold Hills, an outcrop of oolitic limestone. The town's Corinium Museum has an extensive Roman collection.Ĭirencester is twinned with the town of Itzehoe, in the Steinburg region of Germany.
The earliest known reference to the town was by Ptolemy in AD 150.
The Roman name for the town was Corinium, which is thought to have been associated with the ancient British tribe of the Dobunni, having the same root word as the River Churn. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural University, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world, founded in 1840. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds.
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