Viroconium Cornoviorum believed to have been a masculine given name meaning "werewolf". The term "Cornoviorum" distinguishes the site as the Viroconium "of the Cornovii", the Celtic tribe whose "civitas" the settlement became. The original site of the Cornovian capital (also thought to have been named *Uiroconion) was a hillfort on the Wrekin. The site at Wroxeter was strategically located near the end of the primary Watling Street Roman trunk road that ran across England from Dubris (Roman Dover). During the early years the site was a key frontier position lying on the bank of the Severn river whose valley penetrated deep into
Dubris smaller bases in Britannia itself, at Rutupiae and Dubris. Two lighthouses, each called the Pharos, were built soon after the conquest. Proposals of their date range from 50 (only seven years after the invasion of 43), 80 or (since the building includes tiles identical to the mansio in the town built at that date) c. 138, though the general consensus is for a 1st-century AD date. They were sited on the two heights (Eastern Heights and Western Heights) and modelled on the one built for Caligula's aborted invasion at Boulogne. The one on the Eastern Heights still stands in the