ROMAN ENGLAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 13 November 1926, Page 11

ROMAN ENGLAND

TIHB large and straggling village of Caerleon, in Monmouthshire, two miles north-east of the hustling city of Newport, stands amid fields and meadows and woods in the winding valley of the Usk (writes Arthur Weigell in the Daily Mail). About A.D. 78, in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, the famous Second Legion Augusta” overcame the resistance of the tribe of the Silures and marched into their country ot South Wales. , The Roman general, Julius Frontmus, chose a site eight miles to the west and some nine or ten miles up the River Usk from its mouth, that is to say, far enough hack from the estiiary of the Severn to make it safe from attack by sea, and yet not too far into the hilly country to be cut off from the main highways. Here the Romans built their great reetangiilar stronghold, with walls originally of earth, and later of stone, some 1600 ft by 1400 ft in length. The tower of the church at Tredunnock, not far away, seems to he built on Roman foundations. In this church there is the memorial of a soldier of the Second Legion who was evidently buried near this spot- It was erected by his wife, which fact .seems to indicate that this man lived with his family here at Tredunnock, regarding it as his home. The modern village of Caerleon spreads over much of the middle and east side of the fortified enclosure, and the church stands in what must have been the courtyard in front of headquarters. # Caerleon remained for a period little short ot 300 years the base and the home of the Second Legion “Augusta,’'’ and, since there is actual evidence as well as the obvious inference that these soldiers from the Rhine inter-married with the native Silures, there is no doubt that the modern inhabitants of this whole neighbourhood are largely descended from them, for it is to be remembered that the legion was perhaps 10,000 strong in all and lived here for nine or ten generations or more. It is not known exactly when the Second Legion was withdrawn from Wales, but it

KING ARTHUR’S ROUND TABLE

RELICS OF THE SECOND LEGION

seems to have been transferred to Kent some time towards the close of the fourth century, and after that Caerleon began its civilian age. and in the sixth century became the metropolitan see of Wales, famous as the seat of Roman-* British learning. . The outstanding figure in local legends is that of King Arthur, whose real name was Artorius, and who lived about A.D. 500. He seems to have been one of the last great Roman leaders, by which I mean to say that he lived at the time when the Roman civilisation in its Christian guise still survived in our island, his wars being fought against the Saxons. The amphitheatre at Caerleon is still called “Arthur’s Round Table,” and who can prove that Arthur did not here gather his nobles around him in council to discuss the means whereby all that was left of Rome could be saved? An old record states that the King made high holiday in Caerleon on seven Easters, five Christmases, and one Whitsun; and Geoffrey of Monmouth the city in those days as being.“most pleasant and fit for great solemnities, for on one side it was washed bv the noble River Usk, so that kings and princes from the lands beyond the seas might have the convenience of sailing along its course, and on the other side the beauty of the meadows and groves and the magnificence of its palaces made it even rival Rome itself for grandeur.” , There is a mound beside the Roman baths outside the south-east gate of the fortress, and it may be that Arthur had a palace hereabouts, or perhaps lived amid the fading magnificence of the baths themselves, for this spot is traditionally connected with his name. The legend is that here in an underground hall ho still sits sleeping over the ashes of his last banquet, surrounded by his knights, and that when Britain needs him he will arise and shake the dust from his mighty form and come forth to serve once more his country and his Saviour. In the anxious days of 1914 he was reported by the superstitions of Caerleon to have ridden with his nobles at midnight' through the woods.