B0MA2f OCCTPATIOy ly BEITaIX. 323 it received its present name, and was included in the kingdom "f Wiccia,^ (which was at a later period absorbed in that of Mercia). After the battle of Deorham.* in 577, Gle^1ml, Corinimn and Aquse iSolis Yielded to the West Saxons, and Cirencester l>ecame a frontier town against the Mercians. Alxjut 62 S. Penda, king of the 3Iercians. fought a great battle near Cirencester, and in 656,^ Peada. first Christian King of Mercia, held the town. During the year 879, it was in pc»ssession of the Danes, being wrested by them from the Mercians. In that year the Danish army moved from Chippenham to Cirencester, and in &S0 went from Cirencester into East Anglia.^ and settled there. Canute, on his return from Denmark, held a Coimcil in the town in 1020.' In the wars of Stephen it was the subject of severe contests : the castle was finally destroyed by Henry III., in 1216. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Roman struc- tures and edifices were ruined during so many successive contests for its p<:»sses?ioiL although Giraldus Cambrensis speaks of Roman buil'iings stiU existing at Cirencester iQ the reign of Henry U., and the walls erected by the Romans were. notwithstan«iing, entire, as late as the reign of Henry IV, The area inclosed was in form rather more that of a parallelo- gram than of a square, about two miles in circumference, the longer sides of the figure lj>eing towards the north-east and south-west. The Ermine or Irmine Street, from Glevum to Calleva. passed through the town from north to south. The Great Consular Road, the Foss Way, approached it from the nonh-east of England and pa^ed through the town to the south-west : a way called by some the Ikemld Street, and by others the Akeman Street, joined the Foss Way Si.xjii a mile without the walls ; the two united were carried through the town westward to Bath, being more generally called the Foss Way, but by some writers denominated the Aieman Street or Acman Street, leading to Acemannescaster - (Bath). Some authors speak of another Ikenild Street^' from "■ Trajectus Augosti " (Aust Passage), on the Severn ' " Crreoeeastre »jnt, qui Brioumioe * Aa^^Sax. CIiroiL. — Asset^ sim. SSO. Cier Ceri nonrinalur, qoae est in men- — Sm. Don. Hist, de gestis Beg. AugL diaiia fnne Hmcdccnm." — .AfiFW de reb. 879, 880.— Hen. Hnot. Hiet Ang , fib. t. gest. .£l£redi, Ann 879. '^ Ang< Sml OmiQ. — Flar. W^gomi-
- AngL Saiz. Cfaron. — Flor. W^qed. Omn.
dmn. — ^Hen. Hunt. Hist. Angl-^ fib. IL ^ AoB-toMxnies-eeaetBT — the S*x«m name ^ An^ Su. Omn. — Edid. Cfaron., for Badi. Sax. Omn. Ann. 973. Aca- Iib. it^Gmeeastre. — Flor. W»vom. Qma- mumi orhas. Fkn*. Wi*am.
