Eboracum recognise that the Multangular Tower was Roman in date in a 1683 paper with the Royal Society. John Horsley's 1732 "Britannia Romana", or 'The Roman Antiquities of Britain', included a chapter on Roman York and at least partly informed Francis Drake's 1736 "Eboracum" – the first book of its kind on Roman York. Drake also published accounts in the "Philosophical Transactions" of the Royal Society. The Rev. Charles Wellbeloved was one of the founders of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and a curator of the antiquities in the Yorkshire Museum until his death in 1858. He published a systematic account of
Eboracum of the period have been excavated. For the Romans, Eboracum, was the major military base in the north of Britain and, following the 3rd century division of the province of Britannia, the capital of northern Britain, Britannia Inferior. By 237 Eboracum had been made a colonia, the highest legal status a Roman city could attain, one of only four in Britain and the others were founded for retired soldiers. This mark of Imperial favour was probably a recognition of Eboracum as the largest town in the north and the capital of Britannia Inferior. At around the same time Eboracum became