Viroviacum
VIROVIACUMin Gallia,in the Table, Virovinum, is placed on a route from Castellum ( Cassel) to Turnacum ( Tournay). The Antonine Itinerary fixes it xvi. from each place. The distances in the Table do not agree; but the site is certain. It is Werwicor Verwick, a large village on the Lys, 3 leagues from Lillein the French department of Nord. In 1514 a medal of C. Julius Caesar was dug up at Werwic, and some time afterwards other medals of the time of the Antonini. There is a tradition also of the remains of an ancient edifice having been seen here, and a fragment of a statue (Bast, Recueil d'Antiquités Romaines et Gauloises trouvées dans la Flandre proprement dite, Gand, 1804.)
[G.L]A vicus on the road from Turnacum (Tournai) to Castellum Menapiorum (Cassel), mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary (376) and the Peutinger Table (which gives the form Virovino). The identification with Wervik was essentially based on toponymy, but for a long time remained uncertain because the two documents gave contradictory distances; excavations conducted in 1950 confirmed it. These excavations cut through the Tournai-Cassel road (7 m wide at that point) and uncovered an important archaeological level with remains of wooden buildings, dumps, a potter's kiln, traces of ironworks (with a smelting furnace), and a well. The upper part of the well was a masonry drum with large ashlars; the lower part consisted of a square wooden lining. Study of the pottery indicates that the vicus was occupied from the middle of the 1st c. A.D. until about the middle of the 3d. Probably the center was sacked during one of the barbarian invasions of the second half of the 3d c. There is no proof that the site was reoccupied during the 4th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHYM. Bauwens-Lesenne, Bibliografisch repertorium der oudheidkundige vondsten in Westvlaanderen (1963) 128-31; H. Goeminne, “Opgravingen in de Romeinse Vicus te Wervik,” Arch.Belgica 117 (1970) MPI.
S. J. DE LAET