Ariconium
ARICO´NIUM (Weston, in Herefordshire), the third station of the Itinerarium Antonini, on the road from Caerleon to Silchester, between Blestum (Monmouth), and Glevum (Gloucester).
[R.G.L]A town ca. 20 km NW of Gloucester on the road towards the Wye valley. Excavations have produced 13 British coins which may suggest a native or Roman military site as the precursor of the town. Substantial stone buildings have been found, but no defenses. In an area of ca. 100 ha the fields abound with iron slag and the debris of smelting, some of which was reused in the 17th and 18th c. Some furnaces have been excavated, and it seems probable that the town was the center of an iron smelting industry. The pottery and coins indicate a peak of activity in the 3d and early 4th c. The name appears in the Antonine Itinerary, but its meaning is not known.
BIBLIOGRAPHYAntJ 3 (1923) 66-67; Trans. Woolhope Nat. Field Club (1921-23); furnaces: ibid. 38 (1965) 124-35.
G. WEBSTER