The same author, in his Life of Vitellius, seems to strengthen or
rather establish the conjecture of its being the _Vitellii Strata
Via_, for he says, (chapter 1,) "_indicia, stirpis (Vitelliorum) diu
mansisse, Viam Vitelliam ab Janiculo ad mare usque, item coloniam
ejusdem nominis._" Or, "Some monuments of the family continued a long
time, as the _Vitellian Way_, reaching from the Janiculum to the sea,
and likewise a colony of that name." From the abovementioned extracts,
it seems not improbable that one of the thirty battles mentioned by
Suetonius, might have been fought during the time the Romans were
forming this road through the Forest of Arden, which extended from
Henley, in Warwickshire, to Market Harborough, in Leicestershire; and
that it was called in compliment to Vitellius, the _Vitellian Way_,
afterwards corrupted to the _Watling Way_.

This road from the Avon, which it passes at Dove Bridge, to the Anker,
near Atherstone, forms the boundary between the counties of Leicester
and Warwick. In the month of June, 1824, numerous skulls and bones
were discovered in a line from the intersection of the road that leads
from Rugby to Lutterworth, with the Watling Street to Benones or
Bensford Bridge, the distance not being more than half a mile. These
bones were lying about two feet below the surface of the ground. Many
fragments of shields, spear heads, knives, and a sword,[3] placed by
the side of a skeleton, and at one end touching a funereal urn,[4] and
likewise several drinking cups, or small vessels, apparently formed of
half-baked clay, with clasps both of silver and brass, were found
within the abovementioned distance. On the contrary side of the road
were discovered beads, glass, and amber, but neither urns,
spear-heads, or fragments of shields; these relics, therefore,
probably belonged to the Britons, who fell encountering the Romans, to
prevent their forming a road through the Forest of Arden. There can be