Roman Wales - The Roman Invasion

To understand the early history of Roman Wales we have to cast our eyes outside the present borders of the country to examine the political situation in southern Britain.

The powerful Catevellauni tribe controlled a large swath of territory from Surrey to Essex. The Catevellauni had strong links with the Belgae of France, and their highly developed society produced its own coins, and engaged in a lively trade with the continent. There is even some suggestion that the Catevellauni had evolved an early form of written language. But as with many powerful kingdoms, the Catevellauni had powerful enemies, and equally powerful internal struggles.

The king of the Catevellauni in the fourth decade of the modern era was Cunobelinus, who has been identified as the Old King Cole of nursery rhyme fame. This Cunobelinus - the name is that given him by later Roman commentators - had three sons, Caratacus, Togodumnus, and Amminius.

Amminius was exiled by his father for unnamed offences. When Cunobelinus died in about 40AD, Caratacus and Togodumnus took control of the kingdom.

Amminius was not one to give in easily. He appealed to Rome for aid in establishing his claim to the kingdom of the Catevellauni. It was, in retrospect, a rather foolish move, for he provided the perfect excuse for the Romans to invade Britain.

In 43AD 40,000 Roman troops under Aulus Plautius landed in the south-east of England. They dealt speedily with the Catevellauni, and established a strong military presence in the south. The preliminary frontier of the new Roman territory was the Fosse Way, a road running from Exeter to Lincoln.

Beyond the Fosse lurked the Brigantes in the north, and the tribes of Wales, notably the Silures in the south-east. Carataucus fled to the Silures, and induced them to take up arms against the Romans.

The Romans quickly realised the importance of cutting off the tribes of Britain from each other and dealing with each individually. They moved into the north of Wales against the Deceangli, and established forts along the frontier with the Silures, notably at present-day Gloucester and Usk.

The ever-pugnacious Caratacus - the Caradog of Welsh legend - moved north to carry on the fight in the territory of the Ordovices in Anglesey and Caernarfon. There, in 51AD, he was defeated and his family captured. He fled again, this time to the Brigantes, where he could be forgiven for expecting a warm welcome.

Instead, the queen of the Brigantes, Cartamandua, betrayed him to the Romans. This proud Celtic warrior was taken in chains to Rome, where he is said to have remarked, "Why do you, with all these grand possessions, still covet our poor huts?".

But the Romans did not have it all their own way in Britain. The Silures defeated the forces sent against them in 52AD, and the grip of the Romans on their new British territory remained a troubled one. Fresh campaigns in 57 and 60AD struck deep into Welsh territory.

The latter campaign was directed at the seat of druidical power in Wales, the Isle of Anglesey. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the legionnaries doffed their clothes and swam naked across the Menai Straights to do battle with the druid-led Celts.

Just when it looked as if the Romans would be able to subdue the Welsh tribes, a revolt by the Iceni in Norfolk broke out, led by their queen, Boudicca (Boadicea). The Roman forces were diverted, and the Welsh territory remained under very tenuous Roman control for several years.

In the years following 70AD fresh forts were built by the Romans at strategic locations along the Welsh borders, notably at Chester and Caerleon. Huge numbers of troops - as many as 30,000 at any one time - were flung into Wales, where the tribes resisted using guerilla tactics unfamiliar (and thoroughly exasperating) to the Romans.

At least 35 smaller fortified camps were built to support these troops, and linked with a network of roads (see map). If we can judge by the location of these forts, the Deceangli of the north and the Demetae of south-west Wales must have offered little opposition to the Romans.

Such is not the case with the Silures in the south-east and the Ordovices in the north-west, whose territories are dotted with Roman strongholds. Investigation of remains at these forts suggests that the Silures gradually adapted to the presence of the Romans among them and gave little trouble after the mid 2nd century.

If the Silures finally bent a grudging knee to the might of Rome, such could not be said for the Ordovices. The north-west of Wales remained a source of irritation to the Romans for generations to come, if we can judge by the continued military presence and lack of villas in this area.

Settlements (vici) grew up around the major Roman forts of Caerleon, Caerfnarfon, and Casws. The Romans granted the right to build a "civitas", or self-governing city, to tribes whose allegiance was secure.

The Cornovii had Viroconium (Wroxeter), which grew to be the fourth largest city in Roman Britain. The Silures had their own civitas at Caer-went, which eventually grew to house some 1500 people and was for several centuries the largest population centre within Wales.

These civitas had all the ammenities one would expect of a full Roman city - to whit, public baths, a forum, a basilica, temples, and merchants houses complete with all the "mod-cons". Carmarthen may also have been a civitas, though this is less clear.

What is clear, however, is that the area surrounding both these urban centres hosted a large number of villas, which indicates that the area was safe from the unrest of the north. A dozen villas have been found in Wales, the largest at Llantwit Major.

The upper classes of Wales adopted the trappings of Roman civilisation, including the state religion. A variety of other religious cults had their adherents, and druidism survived despite the best efforts of the Romans to stamp it out.

The Romans attempted to subvert allegiance to the old Celtic gods by linking them with Roman gods. Thus, for example, the Roman god Mars was linked with the Celtic Oculus. Many of the old Celtic gods were transformed in time into the human heroes eulogized in the tales of the Mabinogion.

When Christianity was established as the official religion of the Empire in the 4th century, it quickly gained hold in Wales. By the end of that century Christianity had practically oblierated traces of the earlier Celtic religions. At least at first, however, Christianity was the religion of the cities, the civitas.

The bulk of the populace would have continued to worship as before, in an odd mixture of mystery cults and bastardized versions of Roman and Celtic beliefs.

Although the language of the aristocracy and the Romanized cities, was Latin, the vast majority of the population still spoke a version of Brittonic.

It is tempting to think of Roman Wales only in terms of its relation to Britain and the Empire as a whole, but that lopsided view ignores the physical and cultural proximity of Ireland to the west. Irish pirates seem to have been a constant nuisance, and Irish settlers made several attempts to colonise the western Welsh peninsulas.

The tumultuous politics of the Roman Empire deserve a note here. The course of the later Empire (c 200-400) was a rocky one. Emperors came and went with bewildering frequency; sometimes several at a time.

The territory of modern Wales even had its own Emperors from 286-296, Carausius (Carawn in Welsh legend), and Allectus. The latter was defeated by Constantius, who ruled the Empire in the West, while Diocletian managed affairs in the East. This split in the Empire was followed by a further split in the governing of Brittania, which was divided into four pieces. Although the divisions are not clear, it seems likely that Wales was part of Brittania Prima, which had its capital at Cirencester.

Throughout the second half of the 4th century the Empire became increasingly unstable; barbarian attacks on the borders increased, and it seems that the legions were gradually withdrawn from Wales to counter threats on the continent.

By 390AD there were probably no Roman troops remaining within the borders of Wales. In the next few decades most of the legionnaries in England followed and Brittania was esentially undefended.

The Irish saw their chance; in 405 pirates under Nial ravaged the western coast, and may have precipitated a fresh influx of Irish settlers.

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Text © David Ross and Britain Express 2001