Having saved the Queen, the Romans stayed put and over the next 300 years or so Eboracum (the Roman version of the Celtic name meaning 'the place where yew trees grow') assumed a unique status in Britain as both a permanent military base and a civilian town of the highest rank. The population was made up not only of native Britons, but also, as inscriptions on tombstones tell us, of people from many other parts of the empire including Gaul, Germany and Italy.

The Legionary Fortress of Eboracum
In outline the plan of the fortress resembled a playing card. Initially, it was defended by a ditch and earthen rampart with palisades, towers and gates constructed, like most of the internal buildings, of timber. Inside was a grid of streets. At the centre stood the headquarters building, the legion's command and control centre. There was a bath house, a house for the commanding officer and barracks for the 5000 or so men of the legion. 50 football pitches would comfortably fit inside the fortress.

The first garrisoning force at York was the 9th Legion. The tombstone of their standard bearer, Lucius Duccius Rufinus, from Gaul, can be seen in the Yorkshire Museum. By the year 120 when the Emperor Hadrian came to York to build the wall which defended Roman Britain from the unruly tribes of the north, the Ninth had departed. What happened to it has, until recently, been a mystery and a myth has grown up of their annihilation in a war in Scotland. What is now thought more likely, however, is that the men were transferred to a fortress in the Netherlands.

The Colonia
The 6th Legion became the new garrison at York and set about reconstructing the buildings, walls, gates and towers of the fortress in stone. An important civilian town grew up around the main approach roads to the fortress. On the opposite bank of the Ouse, where the town was probably walled, archaeological excavations have uncovered splendid public buildings, including bath houses and temples. There were also fine houses for wealthy people like Julia Velva whose tombstone in the Yorkshire Museum shows her dining, as one did in polite society, while reclining on a couch.

Imperial York
In AD 208 the Emperor Septimus Severus set up the Imperial Court in York and from here he ruled the entire Roman Empire for three years while campaigning in Scotland. Severus died in York in the year 211. During the reign of his son Caracalla, the Roman province of Britannia was divided into two and the town at York was made capital of Lower Britain and given the honorific title of colonia.

In the year 306, a second but less well-known emperor, Constantius I, died in York. His son Constantine 'the Great' was then acclaimed as emperor by the army. It was in York, therefore, that the career was launched of one of the most remarkable rulers of the Roman empire, not least because he was the first to tolerate Christian worship.

Decline
By the beginning of the 5th Century the Roman political and economic system in the west had collapsed and Britain ceased to be part of the Empire. As far as is known, both the fortress and town at York were soon almost completely deserted. Archaeologists have found that signs of life did not return to the ancient city until around AD600 but in 627 York returned to documented history when, as the Venerable Bede tells us, King Edwin of Northumbria was baptised here.