URICO'NIUM, an ancient Roman city of Britain, the site of which is about 4 m. to the e. of Shrewsbury, and is partly occupied by the village of Wroxeter. The original` name seems to have been Viroconium, which was changed, in the later Roman-British period to Uriconium. It is mentioned by Ptolemy as existing in the beginning of the 2d c. A.D. The remains of the city show it to have been a place of much importance. The wall can still be traced near the banks of the Severn, forming an irregular oval rather snore than 3 m. in circumference. It appears that one of the principal streets of the city occupied the line of the Watling street road. The remains of Uriconium have recently been explored by an association formed for the 'purpose at Shrewsbury, and many curious relics of antiquity have been discovered, throwing great light on Roman civilization in Britain. The human remains found in the excavations which have been made, affording proof of death by violence or by suffocation, show that the city did not slowly decay, but was sacked and burned by enemies, which probably took place about the 5th century. Of this, however, there is no certain historic record. The ruins seem to have remained with little change, except the gradual process of decay, till about the 12th c., when they were used as materials for other buildings. Some of the churches of
the neighborhood were built of the old Roman bricks. The walls of buildings are now found, perfect as far as the previous accumulation of earth rendered it difficult to remove the bricks of which they were constructed. The most remarkable relic of antiquity in Uriconium is the old grail, a great mass of Roman masonry, which appears to have been the side of a great edifice, remains of Mosaic pavements having been found near it, and apparently connected with it. The edifice to which the old wall belonged is supposed to have occupied a corner at the junction of two principal streets. The excavations, which have been made, however, leave it very difficult to explain the and purpose of the remains discovered. Several inscriptions have been found at Uriconium, but none of great interest. A museum has been formed at Shrewsbury, in most of the antiquities from this spot are collected. Hair-pins, combs, and rings are particularly numerous among them.