Verulamium was the third largest city in Roman Britain (200 acres within the walls). Its place in the Roman province was thus commensurate with the part it has played in modern assessments of the history and culture of Roman Britain. The excavations undertaken between 1930 and 19-34 by Dr and Mrs R. E. M. Wheeler were amongst the first scientific excavations of Roman towns in this country, and their report was certainly the first to interpret the results gained in the wider context of the history of the Roman Empire. Those deductions were thereupon utilized by Collingwood as a framework for the history of urbanization in Britain as a whole and have coloured interpretation ever since. Yet of the 200 acres of Verulamium only 11 had been investigated and those in an area thought to be peripheral. Today, therefore, at the conclusion of a second campaign (1955-61) when another, more central, area has been excavated and when the acreage investigated has increased to 20, it is justifiable to reassess the history of the town.