| We commenced our journey at my birthplace of Caer Llion ar Wysg (1), which is to say the Encampment of the Legions on the river Usk. In the days of the Roman occupation it was named 'Isca', after the river, and it was the legionary fortress of the Legio II Augusta. Built to a standard pattern, it covered an area of some 50 acres. It was established in AD 74 or 75 as a strategic base for the conquest of south Wales, the site being chosen for its proximity to another base near the mouth of the Usk, which could receive supplies by sea. The Second Augustan Legion would have comprised about 5,500 men divided into ten cohorts, living in large barracks within the fort. Detachments, called 'vexillations' after their vexillum or banner, were routinely sent on campaigns in northern Britain or on one of the other frontiers of the empire: at least seven out of ten cohorts of II Augusta worked on Hadrian's wall from 122AD. |
INCIPIT PARS PRIMA |
| In 1188, Giraldus Cambrensis (2), who will be mentioned many times in this discourse, travelled through Caerllion and remarked: There is a lofty tower, and beside it remarkable hot baths, the remains of temples and an amphitheatre. All is enclosed within impressive walls, parts of which still remain standing. Wherever you look, both within and without the circuit of these walls, you can see constructions dug deep into the earth, conduits for water, underground passages and air- vents. Most remarkable of all to my mind are the stoves, which once transmitted heat through narrow pipes inserted in the side-walls and which are built with extraordinary skill. Alas, by the time our little group arrived, few vestiges of its one-time splendour remained: most of the masonry had been pilfered ('mooted up') for later mediæval constructions. Even so, in the reign of Elizabeth it was said: There are such vautes and hollow caves, / Such walles and condits deepe: / Made all like pypes of earthen pots, / Wherein a child may creepe (3). | |
| As we approached from the East, along the line of the Roman via praetoria, we saw first the remains of the fortress baths, built around 80AD. Little is left now to be seen, except part of the long natatio, or open-air swimming-pool, and a section of the frigidarium or cold bath suite. Until about 110AD, the natatio was 135 feet long, with an area greater than the Great Bath at Aquae Sulis (4), it being fed with water from an elaborately decorated nymphaeum, or fountain house. Later modifications reduced the bath in size. The bath buildings, and in particular the basilica or exercise hall, rivalled the great mediæval cathedrals in size and splendour. When their cohort's turn came around, the soldiers would pass through the various bath suites, exercise in the basilica, and perhaps enjoy a massage. They might also play at dice, or buy food from various vendors. For fear of theft, the bathers would wear their jewellery, and the wet heat of the baths sometimes loosened the gems. When the main drain was excavated, 88 engraved gemstones were discovered. These, together with many other artifacts from Roman times, are displayed in a museum further along the via praetoria. | |
| Turning south-west along the via principalis, we came to the remains of the amphitheatre. This was built around 90AD to provide the soldiers with the barbaric entertainments for which Rome is infamous, though there is no evidence that any Christians were martyred therein. We entered through one of the two portae pompae, or ceremonial entrances, and let loose the baby of the household in the oval arena. There Michael re-enacted the savagery of former days by pursuing a large moth, but after many labours a tie was conceded. Nothing now remains of the timber grandstands that would have provided 6,000 seats, but many inscribed stones have been found, bearing the names of the centuries which built the walls, such as COH III RUFINI PRIMI, the century of Rufinus Primus in the third cohort. Also, at various places tiles have been found stamped LEG·II·AUG, the legion's own title. | |
| On this side of the fortress, the walls still remain and, although much depleted by stone robbers, stand in places to a height of 12 feet. These walls, built around AD 100 to 110 to supplement and partly replace the original defences of turf, clay and timber, were five feet thick, and several of the spaced interval turrets that strengthened it are visible. There are also some remains of barracks, ovens and a latrine at Prysg Field in the western corner, but my tale already grows too long. Suffice it to say that the legion abandoned Isca sometime between AD 287 and 296, although a few coins from the fourth century have been discovered. | |
| This being so, we must perhaps doubt a certain tale in the Mabinogion (5), which tells how the Roman emperor Maxen came to Segontium (6) to marry a British noblewoman. He spent seven years in this island, and at that time it was a custom of the Romans that whenever an emperor stayed conquering in another land for seven years, he must stay abroad and not be allowed to return to Rome. A new emperor was elected, and he sent Maxen a threatening letter, no more than this: "If you come, and if you ever come to Rome". This letter with its contents reached Maxen at Caer Llion, and he in turn sent a letter to the man who claimed to be Emperor of Rome, no more than this: "If I go to Rome, and if I go". Then Maxen and his host set out for Rome, but after a year before the fortress he was no closer to taking it than he had been the first day. But then some men of Britain overcame the stronghold for him by clever strategy, which shows the Celtic race is not only fierce in battle, but also cunning. |
Kynan and Avaon, the brothers of Elen of the Hosts, scaled the walls of Rome at noon while its defenders were eating. |
| While treating the subject of questionable tales, it may be noted that the Gerald of whom I have already written had great faith in a certain tradition concerning the bishopric of St David's. Dewi Sant, its founder, was believed to have been archbishop of all Wales, he and his successors being metropolitan archbishops, which is to say heads of an independent Welsh Church owing no alliegance to England. (7) Gerald spent much of his life campaigning for the liberation of the Welsh Church from the rule of Canterbury, even visiting Rome three times within four years, but he was ultimately unsuccessful. | |
| Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Historia Regum Britanniae (8), claims that Welsh archbishops date back to the conversion of Celtic Britain to Christianity in the second century. He states: At that time, there were 28 flamens in Britain and 3 archflamens, to whose jurisdiction the other spiritual leaders were subject. At the Pope's bidding, the missionaries converted these men from their idolatry. Where there were flamens they placed bishops and where there were archflamens they appointed archbishops. The seats of the archflamens had been in three noble cities, London, York and the City of the Legions, the site of which last, by the River Usk in Glamorgan, is still shown by its ancient walls and buildings. Cambria or Wales was placed under the City of the Legions. In the sixth century, Dewi Sant supposedly became archbishop and took up residence in the town of Menevia, now called 'St David's' in his honour, thus fulfilling a prophesy made by Merlin: Menevia pallio Urbis Legionis induetur (9). |
This was Merlin Ambrosius |
| Geoffrey refers a number of times to the City of the Legions, or Caerusc, by which we may suppose he was familiar with Caerllion, it being only some 20 miles from Mynwy, (10) although he lived most of his later life in Rhydychen (11). King Arthur, he claims, held court at Caerllion (although in earlier sources Arthur's capital is invariably at Celliwig in Cornwall) and Queen Guinevere took her vows with the nuns there in 542AD, at the church of Julius the Martyr. | |
| Julius and Aaron, Legionum Urbis cives were torn limb from limb during the depredations of Maximianus Herculius. At this time also was Albanus martyred at the place that now bears his name. (12) | |
| I myself saw Myrddin with my own eyes, and the sword Caledvwlch, when I fought with Arthur's father, Utherpendragon, at Verulamium (13). My recollection is that King Uther was slain in the internecine conflict that followed his seduction of the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. Geoffrey states that the Britons were fighting the Saxons, who poisoned a well from which the King was wont to drink, and this caused his death. Those were troubled times, and the details may have been misapprehended, but we concur in placing Utherpendragon's death at Verulamium. | |
| Eyewitnesses will confirm that the author was there, and was carried from the field of battle. This was in the days when he fought in the company of the Hounds of the Morrigan. (14) | |
| Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae was strangely influential even though derided from its first appearance. William of Newburgh wrote: It is quite clear that everything this man wrote was made up, partly by himself and partly by others, either from an inordinate love of lying, or for the sake of pleasing the Britons. (15) Gerald is more subtle in his disparagement, recounting that a soothsayer named Meilyr, who lived in Caerllion until his death in 1174, could see and talk to spirits. Whenever anyone told a lie in his presence, he saw a demon dancing and exulting on the liar's tongue. When he was harassed beyond endurance by these unclean spirits, St John's Gospel was placed on his lap, and then they all vanished immediately. If the Gospel were afterwards removed and the 'History of the Kings of Britain' put there in its place, the demons would alight all over his body, and on the book, too, staying there longer than usual. | |
| In 1405, a French expeditionary force supporting Owain Glyndw^r was told that the Roman amphitheatre was King Arthur's Round Table, and the Elizabethan topographer-poet Thomas Churchyard, whom I have already mentioned, wrote: In Arthurs tyme, a table round, / Was there whereat he sate: / As yet a plot of goodly ground, / Sets foorth that rare estate. | |
| Alas, the many tales I related concerning my birthplace did not long divert Robert from his quest. There was once a mediæval castle at Caerllion, but all that now remains is the lower part of a thirteenth-century tower, built almost entirely of Roman stones. Deeming this meagre ruin to be unworthy of inspection, Robert bade us make haste south-west toward Caerdydd. Newport Castle, southward at the mouth of the Usk, interested him little, it having been established early in the fourteenth century, although the buildings are from the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Besides, Gerald warns that the stream called Nant Pencarn may be crossed only with difficulty near Newport, so we passed by further inland. | |
| Of the Nant Pencarn, Gerald also says (16): In olden times there was a ford called Rhyd Pencarn. Merlin Sylvester said about it: "Whenever you see a strong man with a freckled face cross over Rhyd Pencarn on his way to lead an invasion of South Wales, you can be quite sure that the Welsh troops will be beaten." It so happened that Henry II, King of the English, took up arms against Rhys ap Gruffydd. Henry was both strong and freckled, but the old ford was long disused. Alas, events transpired thusly: Henry rode swiftly along the road leading to the river and came to the other ford which is normally used. To do the King honour, the buglers and trumpeters began to sound their instruments on the opposite bank of the ford. Thereupon the horse on which the King was riding was so startled that it refused to enter the water. Henry tugged on the reins and hurried off in a fit of rage to the old ford, which he crossed at full speed. At this the watchers despaired, and it was not long afterward that Rhys surrendered at Pencader. |
EXPLICIT PARS PRIMA |
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| 1 | Or Caer y Lleng; known to the English as 'Caerleon': compare the Latin, Castra Legionum. (back) |
| 2 | Gerald of Wales, or Gerallt Gymro, although he did not refer to himself by this name. References here will be taken from the Penguin Classics translation of his Itinerarium Cambriae, 'The Journey Through Wales' and Descriptio Cambriae, 'The Description of Wales' : ISBN 0-14-044339-8. (back) |
| 3 | Thomas Churchyard, The Worthines of Wales, 1587. (back) |
| 4 | Bath. (back) |
| 5 | A composite title for eleven mediæval Welsh prose tales. This story is from Breuddwyd Maxen, 'The Dream of Maxen', and is based on the career of the Spaniard Magnus Maximus, who served with the Roman army in Britain from AD 368 to 383. His disenchanted troops proclaimed him emperor, and he conquered Gaul, Spain and northern Italy before being defeated and beheaded in 388AD. The extract here is from the Penguin Classics translation, ISBN 0-14-044322-3. (back) |
| 6 | now Caernarfon, Y Gaer yn ar Fon, 'the stronghold near Môn' (Anglesey). (back) |
| 7 | Dewi (David in English) was the founder, abbot, and bishop of the monastery of Mynyw (Menevia) in Pembrokeshire.
He was responsible for much of the spread of Christianity in Wales.
For many centuries the Church in Wales had closer ties with the Celtic Churches than with the Church in Anglo-Saxon England.
However, after the Norman conquest in 1066, Wales eventually came under English control,
and the Church in Wales was placed under the jurisdiction of Canterbury.
Finally, in 1920 the Church in Wales (Eglwys yng Nghymru) achieved independence,
although it is still in communion with other Anglican Churches.
(back) (From a web site written by James E. Kiefer. Here are links to more information about the history and disestablishment of the Church in Wales.) |
| 8 | 'The History of the Kings of Britain' , by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Gaufridus Monemutensis), completed circa 1136, is a notoriously fantastical romance which purports to tell the story of British kings from the Trojan Brutus (supposedly the first king, circa 1100BC), to the death of Cadwallader in 689AD. I have used the Penguin Classics translation, ISBN 0-14- 044170-0. (back) |
| 9 | 'Menevia shall be dressed in the pall of the City of the Legions' , one of the many prophesies Geoffrey attributes to Merlin. The pallium is part of an archbishop's ceremonial vestments. (Compare the Latin Menevia with the Welsh Mynyw.) (back) |
| 10 | Monmouth. (back) |
| 11 | Oxford, with which Geoffrey was connected closely between 1129 and 1151. (back) |
| 12 | This was during the Diocletian persecution, from 303AD. Maximianus Herculius was the general of his armies. Julius and Aaron were 'townsfolk of the City of the Legions', according to Bede's Ecclesiastical History. (back) |
| 13 | Circa 500AD? Myrddin = Merlin. Caledvwlch = Caliburn or Excalibur. Verulamium = St Albans. (back) |
| 14 | Click here for a picture of this event. (back) |
| 15 | Translated from his Historia Rerum Anglicarum, written circa 1190. (back) |
| 16 | In his Itinerarium Cambriae. Rhyd Pencarn = 'the ford beneath the overhanging rock'. The events described occurred in 1163. (back) |
