Listed 65 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "WALES Region WALES" .
CAERNARFON (Town) WALES
CARMARTHEN (Town) WALES
HAVERFORDWEST (Town) WALES
MERTHYR TYDFIL (Town) WALES
PORT TALBOT (Town) WALES
ABERGAVENNY (Town) WALES
Gobannium (Abergavenny) Monmouthshire, Wales.
The Roman fort has not been precisely located, but must lie beneath the modern town of Abergavenny, on the N bank of the Usk. A bath is known near the castle, and a cemetery to the NE. Excavations in the town center have produced a quantity of Roman pottery of the period A.D. 75-150, with enough Claudian and Neronian pottery to indicate occupation in the period A.D. 50-60. The finds are in the Abergavenny Museum.
CAERHUN (Town) WALES
Canovium (Caerhun) Caernarvonshire, Wales.
The identification of Canovium with the Roman fort at Caerhun derives from
a milestone, and is confirmed by the Antonine Itinerary and the Ravenna Cosmography.
The fort is at the upper tidal limit of the river Conway, close to the point where
the road from Deva (Chester) to Segontium (Caernarvon) crossed the river. Another
road led directly through the mountains of Snowdonia to Tomen-y-Mur and the S.
Approximately three-quarters of the fort has been excavated; the remainder
lies under the church and churchyard. The fort (140 x 140 m; 1.97 ha), had a small
annex of uncertain function on its S side. The original fort, built ca. A.D. 80,
had earthen defenses and timber buildings in the interior. Modifications involved
the building of stone angle-towers, and later of a stone wall; this was not earlier
than ca. A.D. 150. Two of the gates have the usual paired guard-towers, but the
portae decumana and principalis dextra have only a single tower.
Little is known of the timber buildings of the original fort; the
stone ones appear to have been provided for a cohors quingenaria equitata, and
since they comfortably fill the area available the original garrison was probably
of the same character. The buildings in the central range consist of a pair of
granaries with an enclosed space between them; the headquarters, of standard form;
and the commandant's house. This last is on a very large scale, though much of
its area may have been taken up with open courtyards.
Between the fort and the river lay the bath house. Originally a simple
row-type structure, it later received considerable additions and must certainly
have had a long life; no precise dating evidence is available. Nor does the evidence
from the fort produce any clear picture. It was apparently occupied until the
end of the 2d c. A.D., with no detectable intermission. The coin lists suggest
that occupation continued until late in the 4th c., but no confirmation can be
found in the ceramic evidence. Possibly the civil settlement continued to be occupied
after the fort was abandoned. There is a suggestion that the fort may have been
briefly reoccupied late in the 3d c., perhaps under Carausius (A.D. 287-293).
The finds from the excavations of 1926-29 are in the Rapallo House Museum, Llandudno.
The site of the fort may be detected today as a level platform raised above the
surrounding fields, but no structure is visible.
M.G. Jarrett, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CAERLEON (Town) WALES
ISCA (Caerleon) Monmouthshire, S Wales.
The base fortress of Legio II Augusta, which had participated in the invasion
of Britain, A.D. 43; founded by Julius Frontinus during the conquest of Wales
(Tac. Agric. 17) in 74-75. Now a village on the river Usk, 4.8 km upstream of
Newport (Mon.), Caerleon has been extensively excavated since 1926. Most of the
plan can be reconstructed, but only the amphitheater and a centurial barrack in
the W corner, together with parts of the adjacent defenses, are visible today.
The fortress occupies a position very similar to that of Legio XX
V. V. at Chester--at the roots of the Welsh peninsula, on a navigable estuary
for ease of supply, but above danger of flooding. Between them, the two fortresses
maintained the military occupation of Wales, and some of the auxiliary forts at
important valley junctions provide evidence of a legionary connection (brick stamps,
inscriptions). The tactical position of Caerleon is particularly good since it
lies in a wide bend of the Usk and is additionally protected by a small tributary
on the E. To the NW rises a hill crowned by a hate Iron Age hill-fort. Running
water was carried by 20 cm head pipes from an unknown source.
The fortress is a rectangular enclosure with rounded corners, oriented
NW-SE and 90 by 18 m. an area of 20.6 ha. The defenses first consisted of a clay
bank formed of upcast from a single ditch 9 m wide; the rampart was strengthened
with timbering, but nothing is known of the gateways and turrets of the initial
period. In the 2d c. the bank was cut back, and a wall (still in parts visible)
built, with a double gateway in each side; there were internal turrets at intervals
of ca. 45 m. Extensive rebuilding at the S corner of the wall may be related to
damage sustained during a revolt of the Silures while the legion was supporting
Albinus in Gaul, in 196-197.
The interior is divided into three lateral zones by the via principalis
(between the NE and SW gates) and the via quintana. In the center of the middle,
or administrative zone stood the headquarters (principia): it is mostly under
the present church, but part of the basilica (64.8 x 26.85 m internally) was excavated
in 1968-69. The roof was supported by lofty colonnades of Bath stone, in front
of the N row of which there had been inscribed plinths for statues, two of bronze
(only scraps remain): cf. the statues erected in a similar position at Lambaesis.
The building was dismantled at the end of the 3d c. On its right side, three of
the five houses for primi ordines centurions, together with parts of the corresponding
10 barracks for the milhiary first cohort, have been excavated. On the left side,
parts of six barracks for a quingenary cohort are known, together with stabling
for the 120 equites, or scouts, of the legion. Behind the principia lay the palace
of the legate (praetorium), with an internal oval court as at Xanten, but approached
through a large basilica for public audience. On the right side of the praetorium
is a great basilica exercitatoria, for drill in wet weather; adjacent are some
rows of magazines. The nature of buildings in an insula farther SW are as yet
unknown. On the left side of the pinetorium is a large courtyard building identified
as workshops, consisting of large halls or stores; residential accommodation projects
into the courtyard. The contents of an insula farther NE are unknown.
The retentura is entirely given over to centurial barracks arranged
longitudinally and accommodating two quingenary cohorts; 12 barracks, on either
side of the decumanus, led to the NW gate. The barracks measured ca. 72 by 12
m, about a third allocated to the centurion and the rest divided into 12 double
cubicles for the men.
The praetentura is bisected by the via praetoria leading from the
SE gate to the headquarters. Inside the SE defenses another long range of 24 barracks
completes the accommodation for the 10 cohorts of the legion. The remaining ground
on the SW side of the praetentura has not been much explored; it is likely that
granaries occupy part of it. On the NE side, recent excavation has revealed parts
of the hospital and the large internal baths, both of which were demolished about
the end of the 3d c. The hospital consists of rows of small wards arranged around
three sides of a square court, with a second concentric range within; a large
operating theater projected into the court from the fourth and SE side. The baths
comprised a large basilica (63.3 x 23.4 m) opening from the via principalis, a
frigidarium with several piscinae, and heated accommodation, the most important
elements of which (calidarium, etc.) are inaccessible. On the SW lay a palaestra
with porticos on three sides, containing a pool (40.5 x 5.4 x ca. 1.2 m) reminiscent
of the palaestra of Herculaneum.
The entire block of internal buildings is divided from the defenses
by a wide street. Various turrets had cookhouses built in front of their ground-floor
entrances and numerous rampart magazines are known. Latrines have been excavated
in the S and W corners and probably existed on the E and N. Some of the principal
buildings were erected in stone from the beginning, but the barracks and the hospital
were first built of timber on cobble footings. The stone replacements are of 2d
c. date, and there was widespread rebuilding and repair in the early 3d c.
The environs of the fortress include elements of a small vicus cannabarum
on the SW, which seems never to have reached urban proportions, perhaps because
the cantonal capital of the Silures (Venta Silurum) was not far distant. Shops,
a mansio (?), and other buildings are known, while temples of Mithras, Jupiter
Dolichenus, and Diana are epigraphically attested. The area is divided by a continuation
of the main street down to the Usk, where 3d c. wharves have been excavated; the
civil settlement is separated from the fortress, NW of this road, by a walled
parade ground (ca. 150 x 207 m), and on the SE side by the amphitheater (80.1
x 66.6 m; the arena, 55.2 x 40.95 m). The structure is partly set into the ground,
the upcast being revetted by stout walling as a basis for the wooden seating.
There are four principal entrances, two on the short axis with boxes above, and
four subsidiary ones; all, except the two that led directly into the arena, had
dens at the level of the arena. A large bath house is adjacent, and another is
known on the SE side of the fortress. On the S side of the Usk and along roads
leading W and NE there were cemeteries, including at least two mausolea belonging
to burial clubs; cremation was the predominant rite.
The finds are housed in the Legionary Museum of Caerleon (branch of
the National Museum of Wales) and at the National Museum in Cardiff.
G.C. Boon, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CARMARTHEN (Town) WALES
Moridunum (Carmarthen) Wales.
Cantonal capital of the Demetae of SW Wales. Its name (sea fortress) is attested
in the Antonine Itinerary and aptly describes its position at the tidal limit
of the Towy estuary, much used by shipping until the late 19th c.
There is no evidence of a pre-Roman settlement. The first occupation
appears to have been an auxiliary fort founded ca. A.D. 74 on the elevated area
overlooking the river crossing, now demarcated by Spilman and King Streets. The
probable S side of the defenses is close to the Ivy Bush Hotel and clearly belong
to the Flavian period. The vicus of the fort would by implication have grown up
to the NE in the area of St. Peter's church; timber buildings of early 2d c. date,
laid out in random fashion, were located here in 1969. Eventually this area was
formalized into the tribal capital of the Demetae.
This was a small town of ca. 6 ha, with a massive stone-faced rampart
and an internal street grid. Changes in modern street levels and building subsidence
in Priory Street suggested the position of the SW and NE ramparts, and the line
of the NW rampart, the best preserved of the four, was suggested by the line of
a visible bank behind Richmond Terrace (confirmed by excavation in 1968-69). Only
the fourth side has not been determined precisely, owing to modern buildings,
but there is the hint of a rampart through the garden of the present vicarage.
The original rampart proved to have been ca. 6 m wide; it still stands nearly
2 m high in places. The turf and clay bank was fronted by a V-shaped ditch of
roughly the same width and 3 m deep. The ditch of the first period was filled
in and the front of the rampart extended, to allow the construction of a stone
face in the second period. Extensive dumping to the rear brought the width of
the defenses to 18 m. The town wall thus underwent the normal development familiar
in Romano-British civil defenses. A terminus post quem for the construction of
the original rampart was provided by Antonine Samian.
Excavation in 1969 showed that creation of the street grid also belonged
to the Antonine period, and timber structures were shown to have lain on either
side of the decumanus farthest N. By the 3d c. stone structures had become more
common and the buildings more complex. A large town house built at that time continued
in use till after A.D. 320, when the area was leveled again for the construction
of an even larger building ca. A.D. 353. Allowing this structure a normal life
(there was no sign of violent destruction), this must extend urban life in the
cantonal capital farthest W in Roman Britain into the last quarter of the 4th
c., lending some credence to Welsh mythological associations between Carmarthen
and Maxin Wledig (Magnus Maximus, emperor A.D. 383-388).
At 150 m outside the presumed position of the E gate lies a large
oval depression partly cut into a hillside. Excavation in 1968 disclosed the site
of an amphitheater; the arena floor was covered with up to 2 m of silt. It was
constructed by cutting into the hill and using the excavated soil to create the
S bank of the cavea. The arena is 46 by 27 m, the circumference of the cavea ca.
92 x 67 m. The arena wall was nearly 2 m thick and built in the 2d c. Seating,
however, was in timber with elaborate sub-frames to maintain the units in position
on the hillside. The site of a bath house is also known on the Parade on the SE
edge of the town. Finds are housed in the local museum.
G.D.B. Jones, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
USK (Town) WALES
Burrium (Usk) Monmouthshire, Wales.
Founded as a legionary fortress ca. A.D. 55, 18 km from the estuary of the river
Usk, it was demolished and replaced by a smaller auxiliary fort ca. A.D. 75. This
fort was dismantled early in the 2d c. A.D. when an extensive civil settlement
grew up on the site and continued until the 4th c.
The existing evidence suggests that it was constructed by the Legio
XX Valeria as a main base for the early Neronian campaigns of Quintus Veranius
(A.D. 57-58) and Suetonius Paulinus (A.D. 58-61) against the Silures (Tac. Ann.
14.29). Its actual construction, however, may be the work of their predecessor,
Didius Gallus, governor in A.D. 52-57. The site is of great strategic importance:
it commands the Usk valley, which leads from the coastal lowlands into the mountains
of S Wales, at a point where it is joined by a supply road from England running
along the Olway valley.
Excavations and magnetometer surveys in 1965-74 have revealed the
line of the defenses on the N, E, and S sides, showing that the fortress covered
an area in excess of 18.75 ha. If the plan is assumed to be symmetrical the full
size would be ca. 21.25 ha. The defenses were of earth and timber with a single
ditch except on the S side where it was doubled. At intervals of ca. 100 Roman
feet were timber towers. The E gate, excavated in 1971, had a double carriageway
flanked by twin towers and approached by a timber bridge across the ditch. With
the exception of the bath all the known buildings are of timber, including 13
granaries and a series of large works or stores compounds set on the N side of
the via principalis.
The site, constricted by rivers and hills, is subject to sudden, severe
flooding which makes it unsuitable for a permanent fortress. Accordingly, in ca.
A.D. 75 when the conquest of S Wales was completed and the strategic importance
of Burrium lessened, the buildings were demolished and the fortress closed, to
be replaced by a new foundation at Isca (Caerleon) 11 km downstream near the estuary
of the Usk. The smaller fort which was then built at Usk appears to have been
an auxiliary fort of the type found throughout Wales in the early Flavian period.
It was demolished at the beginning of the 2d c. A.D. The civil settlement that
occupied the site in the 2d-3d c. A.D. was an lmportant center of iron production
and may have served as a works depot for the Legio II Augusta stationed at Isca
(Caerleon). Excavations are in progress.
W.H. Manning, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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