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2 unusual facts about Wales in the Roman era


Wales in the Roman era

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.

There is also evidence of a preference for non-Christian devotion in parts of Britain, such as in the upper regions of the Severn Estuary in the 4th century, from the Forest of Dean east of the River Wye continuously around the coast of the estuary, up to and including Somerset.


Burrium

The fort was key to the conquest of the Silures, a tribe very resistant to the imposition of Roman rule in Roman Wales, but in AD 66, the legion was transferred to Viroconium Cornoviorum (at Wroxeter) and their base in Wales was largely abandoned.

National Roman Legion Museum

Roman Wales was the farthest point west that the Roman Empire in Roman Britain extended to, and as a defence point the fortress at Caerleon, built in 75 AD, was one of only three permanent Roman Legionary fortresses in Roman Britain.


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