Wales had at least five tribal groupings when the Romans arrived in AD48, 5 years afterthe conquest of Britain had begun. the Deceangli in the north east; the Ordovices in the north west; the Demetae in the south west; the Silures in the south east; and the Cornovii in the centre eat. Wales itself as we know it didn't of course exist, made up of the tribes mentioned who were simply among many that covered Britain at the time.

 

Among the earliest attacks by the Romans upon what would become Wales took place across the River Dee and was aimed at dividing the people of the highlands of Wales from the highlands of the north of what would later be England. The campaign of AD 48 brought about the submission of the Deceangli. In the following year, the Romans sought to divide the people of Wales from those of south western Britain by establishing a major fortress at Gloucester.

 

The Roman advance was slowed by the resistance of the Silures, (Twmbwlarn hillfort was one of their stongholds), under the leadership of Caratacus (the Caradog of Welsh tradition), a prince of the Catuvellauni of Essex who had been driven from his tribal lands by the Romans. In AD 52 they defeated a Roman legion. However, Caratacus was captured and died in Rome in about AD 54.

 

Six years later the Romans attacked Anglesey, with the aim of wiping out the druids who held out there,and who were the inspirers of British resistance. By 75 the Silures had been conquered and, by the 80s AD, with the defeat of the Ordovices, the whole of what would be England and Wales had come under Roman control.

 

The Romans divided their new province Britannia into a civilian lowland zone and a highland military zone. Fortresses, each capable of housing a legion of 5,600 men, were established at York, Chester and Caerleon. At Caerleon, where the Legio II Augusta became stationed in 75AD, buildings were initially constructed of turf, timber and earth, and soon after rebuilt in stone which has left the remains we see today. Throughout Wales, part of the military zone, there were at least 30 auxiliary forts linked by straight roads and situated a day's march from each other.

 

Just a few miles from the fortress at Caerleon the walled town of Caerwent was built, It was founded by the Romans in AD 75 as Venta Silurum, a market town for the defeated Silures tribe. This is confirmed by inscriptions on the "Civitas Silurum" stone, now on display in the parish church. Large sections of the Roman town walls are still in place, rising up to 5 metres high in places. Historian John Newman has described the walls as "easily the most impressive town defence to survive from Roman Britain, and in its freedom from later rebuilding one of the most perfectly preserved in Northern Europe."

 

The forts, like many timber Nornam castles 1000years later, were not all fully manned for long, as most of the inhabitants of Wales came to accept Roman rule, and acted as a temporary reminder of who the new bosses were. However, one exception seems to have been the Ordovices of the centre and the north west. In the Forum in Rome today, there is a vast mosaic map of the Roman Empire; the territory of the Ordovices is not shown as part of it.

The Silures, despite their challenge to Roman authority, came to accept the rule of Rome. Caerleon, perhaps the best place in Europe in which to appreciate the layout of a Roman legionary fort, ceased to be fully garrisoned after about AD 120.