The Romans building a Fort at Mancenion, A.D. 80

This painting depicting Romans building a fort at Mancunium (the Roman name for Manchester) in 80 AD forms part of Ford Madox Brown's twelve-fresco series for Manchester Town Hall, commissioned in 1879 to decorate the principal rooms of Alfred Waterhouse's newly completed building. Brown spent the final fifteen years of his life on these murals, which trace the history of Manchester from Roman settlement through the medieval period, depicting the city's origins with the same historical seriousness he brought to English national history in his easel paintings. The Roman subject presented Brown with extensive research challenges — Romano-British material culture, military architecture, and soldier costume — that he approached with the documentary care characteristic of his historical work. The Aberdeen Archives hold what appears to be a study or related version, while the primary mural occupies its original setting in Manchester Town Hall.

The large civic mural format required compositional solutions on a scale different from easel painting, with figures and architectural elements needing to read clearly from the distance at which they would be viewed. Brown's treatment of the Roman soldiers' construction activity required the accurate rendering of Romano-British military equipment and building technique, researched from archaeological sources. The mural medium itself — unlike oil on canvas — required technical adaptations in medium and approach.