Editing Cirencester (section)

=== Roman Corinium ===
{{main|Corinium Dobunnorum}}

Cirencester is known to have been an important early [[Roman Britain|Roman]] area, along with [[St Albans]] and [[Colchester]], and the town includes evidence of significant area roadworks. The Romans built a ''[[castra]]'' (fort) where the [[Fosse Way]] crossed the Churn, to hold two quingenary (i.e. 500 men) [[Ala (Roman military)|alae]] tasked with helping to defend the provincial frontier around AD 49, and native [[Dobunni]] were drawn from [[Bagendon]], a settlement {{Convert|3|mi|4=0}} to the north, to create a civil settlement near the fort. 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.{{cn|date=March 2025}} 

Even in Roman times, there was a thriving wool trade and industry, which contributed to the growth of Corinium.{{cn|date=March 2025}} A large [[forum (Roman)|forum]] and [[basilica]] were built over the site of the fort, and archaeological evidence shows signs of further civic growth. There are many Roman remains in the surrounding area, including several [[Roman villa]]s near the villages of [[Chedworth]] and [[Withington, Gloucestershire|Withington]]. When a defensive wall was built around the Roman city in the late 2nd century, it enclosed {{Convert|240|acre|km2|1}}, making Corinium the second-largest city by area in Roman Britain. 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]]. Some historians{{who?|date=March 2025}} would date to this period the pillar erected by the [[governors of Roman Britain|governor]] [[Lucius Septimius (Roman governor)|Lucius Septimus]] to the [[Roman god|god]] [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], a local sign of the pagan reaction against Christianity during the principate of [[Julian the Apostate]].{{cn|date=March 2025}}

[[Cirencester Amphitheatre]] still exists in an area known as the [[Querns area, Cirencester|Querns]] to the south-west of the town, but has only been partially [[excavation (archaeology)|excavated]].{{cn|date=March 2025}} Investigations in the town show that it was fortified in the 5th or 6th centuries.{{cn|date=March 2025}}