Page "Municipium" Paragraph 6

According to the forgery De Situ Britanniae by Charles Bertram, forged under the name of Richard of Cirencester, there were two municipia in Brittania: Verulamium ( now St. Albans ) and Eboracum ( now York ), with the latter having become a municipium under Antoninus Pius.

An assertion was made in the 19th century that York was changed to a colonia by Severus, based upon a coin, supposedly inscribed " COL. EBORACVM LEGIO vi.

VICTRIX ".

However, many antiquarians at the time doubted the existence of this coin, the evidence for whose existence came solely from the testimony of Goltzius, which they regarded as suspect.

Several, such as Ruding and Akerman, doubted that any coinage had been minted in Britain.

However, similar doubts were raised about De Situ Britanniae, and its assertions about York being anything other than a colonia.

For example: The Reverend J. Kenrick, writing in the proceedings of the Yorkshire philosophical society in 1849, said " I must declare my adherence to the opinion of those critics, who hold that Richard's Description of Britain is no genuine work.

", noting that " the latinity of the Description appears to me to be to be the same as that of the preface which Bertram has prefixed to it ".