Margary numbers

• Margary Numbers are the numbers allocated to Roman Roads by the historian Ivan Margary using a system which follows the modern road numbering technique.

Works

• The Roman Roads of Britain (1955)
  • In 1955, Ivan Margary published ‘The Roman Roads of Britain’.
  • This is a catalogue of known and supposed Roman Roads and their branches in Britain, which continues to be used by historians and archeologists today.
  • No preserved record remains from antiquity listing how the Romans numbered or named their roads. They are known only by their Anglo-Saxon names such as Watling Street.

Numbering Technique

• Margary applied the modern road numbering technique.
  • Main Roads are given single digit numbers Eg 1.
  • Main branches are given double digit numbers Eg 2b
  • Minor branches are given three digit numbers Eg 45c
• As new Roman Roads are discovered they are given a new Margary number.