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 I came to Eboracum and, in 306, became the second Emperor to die there. His son Constantine was instantly proclaimed as successor by the troops based in the fortress. Although it took Constantine eighteen years to become sole ruler of the Empire, he may have retained an interest in Eboracum and the reconstruction of the south-west front of the fortress with polygonally-fronted interval towers and the two great corner towers, one of which (the Multangular Tower) still survives, is probably his work. In the colonia, Constantine's reign was a time of prosperity and a number of extensive stone town houses