Wales in the Roman era

The history of Roman Wales began in 47 or 48 AD, with a military invasion by the imperial governor of Roman Britain. The conquest would be completed by 78, and Roman rule would endure until the region was abandoned c. 383. Once the conquest was complete, the region and the people living there would be a virtually anonymous part of Roman Britain until the Roman departure.

Roman rule is remembered as a military occupation, save for the southern coastal region of South Wales east of the Gower Peninsula, where there is a legacy of Romanisation, and a few southern sites such as Carmarthen. The only town in Wales founded by the Romans, Caerwent, is located in South Wales. Wales was a rich source of mineral wealth, and the Romans used their engineering technology to extract large amounts of gold, copper, and lead, as well as modest amounts of some other metals such as zinc and silver.

It is the Roman campaigns of conquest that are most widely known, due to the spirited but unsuccessful defense of their homelands by two native tribes, the Silures and the Ordovices. Aside from the Roman-related finds along the southern coast, Roman archaeological remains in Wales consist almost entirely of military roads and fortifications.

Part of the Sarn Helen Roman road in Conwy.

Britain in AD 47

On the eve of the Roman invasion of Wales, the Roman military under Governor Aulus Plautius was in control of all of southeastern Britain as well as Dumnonia, perhaps including the lowland English Midlands as far as the Dee Estuary and the River Mersey, and having an understanding with the Brigantes to the north. They were in possession of virtually all of the commercial wealth of the island, as well as much of its exploitable natural resources.

In Wales the known tribes (the list may be incomplete) included the Ordovices and Deceangli in the north, and the Silures and Demetae in the south. Archaeology combined with ancient Greek and Roman accounts have shown that there was exploitation of natural resources, such as copper, gold, lead and silver at multiple locations in Britain, including in Wales. Otherwise the Welsh tribes are little known or understood.

Invasion and conquest

Main article: Roman conquest of Britain

In AD 47 or 48 the new governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula, moved against the Deceangli along the northeastern coast of Wales, devastating their lands. He campaigned successfully but indecisively against the Silures and then the Ordovices, the most notable feature of which is the leadership of both tribes against him by Caratacus. Scapula died in 52, the same year that the resurgent Silures inflicted a defeat on one of the Roman legions. Scapula was succeeded by a number of governors who made steady but inconclusive gains against the two tribes. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was in the process of conquering Anglesey in AD 60 when the revolt led by Boudica in the east forced a delay in the final conquest of Wales.

There followed a decade of relative peace while Roman imperial attention was focused elsewhere. When expansion into Wales resumed in 73, Roman progress was steady and successful under Sextus Julius Frontinus, who decisively defeated the Silures, followed by the the success of Agricola in defeating the Ordovices, and in completing the conquest of Anglesey in AD 77-78.

There is no indication of any Roman campaigns against the Demetae, and their territory was not planted with a series of forts, nor overlaid with roads, suggesting that they quickly made their peace with Rome. The main fort in their territory was at Moridunum (modern Carmarthen), built around AD 75, and it eventually became the center of a Roman civitas. The Demetae are the only pre-Roman Welsh tribe that would emerge from Roman rule with their tribal name intact.

Wales in Roman Society

Mining

The mineral wealth of Britain was well-known prior to the Roman invasion and was one of the expected benefits of conquest. All mineral extractions were state-sponsored and under military control, as mineral rights belonged to the emperor. His agents soon found substantial deposits of gold, copper, and lead in Wales, along with some zinc and silver. Gold was mined at Dolaucothi prior to the invasion, but Roman engineering would be applied to greatly increase the amount extracted, and to extract huge amounts of the other metals. This would continue until the process was no longer practical or profitable, at which time the mine would be abandoned.

Modern scholars have made efforts to quantify the value of these extracted metals to the Roman economy, and to determine the point at which the Roman occupation of Britain was "profitable" to the Empire. While these efforts have not produced deterministic results, the benefits to Rome were substantial. The gold production at Dolaucothi alone may have been of economic significance.

Industrial production

The production of goods for trade and export in Roman Britain was concentrated in the south and east, with virtually none situated in Wales.

This was largely due to circumstance, with iron forges located near iron supplies, pewter (tin with some lead or copper) moulds located near the tin supplies and suitable soil (for the moulds), clusters of pottery kilns located near suitable clayey soil, grain-drying ovens located in agricultural areas where sheep raising (for wool) was also located, and salt production concentrated in its historical pre-Roman locations. Glass-making sites were located in or near urban centres.

In Wales none of the needed materials were available in suitable combination, and the forested, mountainous countryside was not amenable to this kind of industrialisation.

Clusters of tileries, both large and small, were at first operated by the Roman military to meet their own needs, and so there were temporary sites wherever the army went and could find suitable soil. This included a few places in Wales. However as Roman influence grew, the army was able to obtain tiles from civilian sources who located their kilns in the lowland areas containing good soil, and then shipped the tiles to wherever they were needed.

Romanisation

The best indicators of Romanising acculturation is the presence of urban sites (areas with towns, coloniae, and tribal civitates) and villas in the countryside. In Wales, this can be said only of the southeasternmost coastal region of South Wales. The only civitates in Wales were at Carmarthen and Caerwent. There were three small urban sites near Caerwent, and these and Roman Monmouth were the only other "urbanised" sites in Wales.

In the southwestern homeland of the Demetae, several sites have been classified as villas in the past, but excavation of these and examination of sites as yet unexcavated suggest that they are the evolutionary result of pre-Roman family homesteads rather than the Roman-derived villas that are found elsewhere in Roman Britain.

Perhaps surprisingly, the presence of Roman-era Latin inscriptions is not suggestive of Romanisation. They are most numerous at military sites, and their occurrence elsewhere depended on access to suitable stone and the presence of stonemasons, as well as patronage. The Roman fort complex at Tomen y Mur near the coast of northwestern Wales has produced more inscriptions than either Segontium (near modern Caernarfon) or Roman Chichester.

Hill forts

In areas of civil control, such as the territories of a civitas, the fortification and occupation of hill forts was banned as a matter of Roman policy. However, further inland and northward, a number of pre-Roman hill forts continued to be used in the Roman Era, while others were abandoned during the Roman Era, and still others were newly occupied. The inference is that local leaders who were willing to accommodate Roman interests were encouraged and allowed to continue, providing local leadership under local law and custom.

Religion

There is no virtually no evidence to shed light on the practice of religion in Wales during the Roman era, save the anecdotal account of the strange appearance and bloodthirsty customs of the druids of Anglesey by Tacitus during the conquest of Wales. It is fortunate for Rome's reputation that the druids were described as horrible, else it would be a story of the Roman massacre of defenseless men and women: the likelihood of propaganda and an appeal to salacious interests combine to suggest that the account merits suspicion.

The Welsh region of Britain was not significant to the Romanisation of the island and contains almost no buildings related to religious practice, save where the Roman military was located, and these reflect the practices of non-native soldiers. Any native religious sites would have been constructed of wood that has not survived and so are difficult to locate anywhere in Britain, let alone in mountainous, forest-covered Wales.

The time of the arrival of Christianity to Wales is unknown. Archaeology suggests that it came to Roman Britain slowly, gaining adherents among coastal merchants and in the upper classes first, and never becoming widespread outside of the southeast in the Roman Era. There is also evidence of a preference for non-Christian devotion in parts of Britain, such as throughout the territory of the Dobunni in the 4th century, from the Forest of Dean east of the River Wye continuously around the Severn Estuary, up to and including Somerset.

In the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, written c. 540, Gildas provides a story of the martyrdom of Saint Alban at Verulamium, and of Julius and Aaron at Legionum Urbis, the 'City of the Legion', saying that this occurred during a persecution of Christians. Bede repeats the story in his Ecclesiastical History, written c. 731. The otherwise unspecified 'City of the Legion' is arguably Caerleon, but with Chester also offered as a candidate. All three martyrs are venerated as saints in modern Christianity, but the credibility of Gildas' adherence to historical accuracy is the only argument that they actually existed.

Irish settlerment

By the middle of the 4th century the Roman presence in Britain was was no longer vigourous. Once-unfortified towns were now being surrounded by defensive walls, including both Carmarthen and Caerwent. Political control finally collapsed and a number of alien tribes then took advantage of the situation, raiding widely throughout the island, joined by Roman soldiers who had deserted and by elements of the native Britons themselves. Order was restored in 369, but Roman Britain would not recover.

It was at this time that Wales received an infusion of settlers from southeastern Ireland, the Déisi and Uí Liatháin, concentrated along the southern and western coasts, in Anglesey and Gwynedd (excepting the cantrefi of Arfon and Arllechwedd), and in the territory of the Demetae.

The circumstances of their arrival are unknown, and theories include categorising them as "raiders", as "invaders" who established a hegemony, and as "foederati" invited by the Romans. It might as easily have been the consequence of a depopulation in Wales caused by plague or famine, both of which were usually ignored by ancient chroniclers.

What is known is that their characteristically Irish circular huts are found where they settled; that the inscription stones found in Wales, whether in Latin or ogham or both, are characteristically Irish; that when both Latin and ogham are present on a stone, the name in the Latin text is given in Brythonic form while the same name is given in Irish form in ogham; and that medieval Welsh royal genealogies include Irish-named ancestors who also appear in the native Irish narrative The Expulsion of the Déisi.

End of the Roman era

Historical accounts tell of the upheavals in the Roman Empire during the 3rd and 4th centuries, with notice of the withdrawal of troops from Roman Britain in support of the imperial ambitions of Roman generals stationed there. In much of Wales, where Roman troops were the only indication of Roman rule, that rule ended when troops left and did not return. The end came to different regions at different times.

Roman Walls at Caerwent (Venta Silurum), erected c. 350.

Tradition holds that Roman customs held on for several years in southern Wales, lasting into the 5th century, and that is true in part. Caerwent continued to be occupied after the Roman departure, while Carmarthen was probably abandoned in the late 4th century. In addition, southwestern Wales was the tribal territory of the Demetae, who had never become thoroughly Romanised. The entire region of southernmost and southwestern Wales had been settled by Irish newcomers in the late 4th century, and it seems far-fetched to suggest that they were ever "Romanised".

Magnus Maximus

In Welsh literary tradition, Magnus Maximus is the central figure in the emergence of a free Britain in the post-Roman era. Royal and religious Welsh genealogies compiled in the middle ages have him as the ancestor of kings and saints. In the Welsh story of Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig (Template:Lang-en), he is Emperor of Rome and marries a wondrous British woman, telling her that she may name her desires, to be received as a wedding portion. She asks that her father be given sovereignty over Britain, thus formalising the transfer of authority from Rome back to the Britons themselves.

Historically Magnus Maximus was a Roman general who served in Britain in the late 4th century, launching his successful bid for imperial power from Britain in 383. He would rule over Gaul, Britain, Spain, and Africa until he was killed in 388, after which there was no effort by Rome to reclaim control of Britain.

There is some additional confirmation as to the significance of Magnus Maximus' departure from Britain in 383. In the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae written c. 540, Gildas says that he left Britain not only with all of its Roman troops, but also with all of its armed bands, governors, and the flower of its youth, never to return.

Legacy

Wendy Davies has argued that the later medieval Welsh approach to property and estates was a Romano-British legacy, but this issue and others related to legacy are not yet resolved. For example, Leslie Alcock has argued that that the approach to property and estates cannot pre-date the 6th century, and is thus of a post-Roman legacy.

There was no Latin linguistic heritage left to the Welsh language, only a number of borrowings from the Latin lexicon. These include a few common words and word forms. For example, Welsh ffenestr is from Latin fenestra, 'window', and the suffix -wys found in Welsh folk names is derived from the Latin suffix -ēnsēs. There are a few military terms, such as caer from Latin castra, 'fort'. Eglwys, meaning 'church', is ultimately derived from the Greek klēros.

A parenthetical note concerns Saint Patrick, a patron saint of Ireland. He was a Briton born c. 387 in Banna Venta Berniae, a location that is unknown due to the transcription errors in surviving manuscripts. His home is a matter of conjecture, with sites near Carlisle farvoured by some, while coastal South Wales is favoured by others.

References

• Davies, John (1990), A History of Wales (First ed.), London: Penguin Group (published 1993), ISBN 0-713-99098-8
• Davies, Wendy (1982), Wales in the Early Middle Ages, Leicester: Leicester University Press, ISBN 0-7185-1235-9
• Frere, Sheppard Sunderland (1987), Britannia: A History of Roman Britain (3rd, revised ed.), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0-7102-1215-1
• Giles, John Allen, ed. (1841), "The Works of Gildas", The Works of Gildas and Nennius, London: James Bohn
• Jones, Barri; Mattingly, David (1990), An Atlas of Roman Britain, Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers (published 2007), ISBN 9781842170670
• Laing, Lloyd (1975), "Wales and the Isle of Man", The Archaeology of Late Celtic Britain and Ireland, c. 400–1200 AD, Frome: Book Club Associates (published 1977), pp. 89–119
• Laing, Lloyd; Laing, Jennifer (1990), "The non-Romanized zone of Britannia", Celtic Britain and Ireland, c. 200–800, New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 96–123, ISBN 0-312-04767-3
• Lloyd, John Edward (1911), A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, vol. I (2nd ed.), London: Longmans, Green, and Co (published 1912)
• Mattingly, David (2006), An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, London: Penguin Books (published 2007), ISBN 978-0-140-14822-0
• Rhys, John (1904), Celtic Britain (3rd ed.), London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
• Snyder, Christopher A. (1998), An Age of Tyrants: Britain and the Britons A.D. 400–600, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, ISBN 0-271-01780-5
• Tacitus, Publius Cornelius (117), Murphy, Arthur (ed.), The Works of Cornelius Tacitus (English translation) (New ed.), London: Jones & Co. (published 1836)

External links

• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
• Roman Wales on the RCAHMW website
• Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust info on Roman Wales
• 58 pages of artifacts and places associated with Roman Wales on Gathering the Jewels the website of Welsh cultural history
• Iron Age and Roman Coins in Wales : A study by Cardiff University