ISCA SILVRVM
CASTRA LEGIONIS

Roman Legionary Fortress & Settlement

Caerleon, Gwent

NGRef: ST339906 OSMap: LR171 Type: Legionary Fortress, Major Settlement.
Roads
E (3) to Bulmore (Gwent) SW (13) to Cardiff (South Glamorgan)

Castra Legionis / Isca Silurum
Fortress of the Legion / Riverside Settlement of the Silures

The Roman name of the Caerleon fortress occurs in three separate itinera within the late-second century list of imperial road-routes known as the Antonine Itinerary, serving as a terminus on two of these routes.

• Iter XII: "the route from Muridunum to Viroconium", Caerleon appears as Iscae the home of Legio Secunda Augusta, some twenty-seven miles from Bomium (nr. Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan) and nine miles from Burrium (Usk, Gwent).
• Iter XIII: "the route from Isca to Calleva, one-hundred and nine thousand paces"; a road journey which again starts off with the nine mile road to Burrium (Usk, Gwent), then via Blestium (Monmouth, Gwent) a further eleven miles further along the north bank of the Severn Estuary.
• Iter XIV: "an alternative route from Isca to Calleva, one-hundred and three thousand paces", begins with a nine mile road trip to the civitas capital Venta Silurum (Caerwent, Gwent), followed by a fourteen mile journey across the Bristol Channel to Abona (Sea Mills, Avon).

The only other classical geography which mentions the Caerleon fort is the Ravenna Cosmology of the seventh century, where the name Isca Augusta (R&C#52) occurs between the entry for Bannio (Abergavenny, Gwent) and the unidentified station Albinumno.

The modern name for the fortress of the Second Legion Augusta, Caerleon, is an amalgam of the British word *caer/gaer 'camp, fort', and the Latin legionis 'of the legion'. Gildas (x.2) mentions two Christian martyrs, namely Aaron and Julius, who were described as Legionum urbis cives 'citizens of the Legionary town' (i.e. Caerleon).

The Epigraphy of Isca Silurum

There are eighty-five inscribed stones recorded in the RIB for Caerleon, including thirty-two tombstones, twenty-three centurial and cohort stones, fourteen altars and votive stones, and nine dateable inscriptions.

The Dateable Inscriptions from Isca Silurum

1. The emperor Trajan, born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, was adopted by emperor Nerva in October AD97, whereupon he took the rank of Caesar and adopted the family name Nerva, also accepting the victory title Germanicus shortly afterwards. His accession took place in January 98 upon the natural death of Nerva at Rome, whereupon he became Augustus and accepted the honorary title Pater Patriae.
2. Trajan was consul six times; in AD91, 98, 100, 101, 103 and 112. The stone was originally cut with the numeral II and later changed, probably indicating that the stone was commissioned in AD99 but completed the following year.

1. The emperors Septimius Severus and his eldest son Lucius Septimius Bassianus. Severus became emperor in April AD193 and adopted himself into the family of Marcus Aurelius in 195, at the same time renaming his eldest son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar. Antoninus was elevated to the rank of Augustus in January 198 and ruled jointly with his father until the latter's death at York in February 211. They both adopted the victory title Britannicus in 209, which surely would have been mentioned on a stone erected in the province, so the inscription was probably erected sometime before this date.
2. Severus' younger son, Publius Septimius Geta, was possibly named Caesar in January 198 at the same time his elder brother became Augustus. Following their father's death, he was to rule as joint Augustus with his brother from January 211 until his murder in December that same year. Following his fratricide, the emperor, who was to earn the historical nickname Caracalla after a type of long military cloak which he favoured, ordered his brother Geta's name erased from all public inscriptions.
3. Hadria was a small town in Picenum, now known as Atri on the Adriatic coast of Italy, about a hundred miles north-east of Rome.

1. The emperor Caracalla, who was sole ruler from December AD211 until his murder in Mesopotamia in April 217 (see notes #1 & #2 above).

1. Marcus Valerius Felix was evidently governor of Britain by AD244.
2. Tiberius Pollenius Armenius Peregrinus and Fulvius Aemilianus were ordinary consuls for AD244 (a.u.c.997), the two Augusti concerned were, therefore, the Augustus Philip the Arab, and his like-named son Marcus Junius Phillipus Caesar, who came to power in March/April 244 following the death of the young emperor Gordian III. The Kalends occurred on the first of every month. For more information on the Roman calendar click here. Also see RIB 328.
3. The actarius was the second most-senior book-keeper/clerk in the Roman legion, the assistant of the Cornicularius the regimental treasurer.

1. The emperor Valerian and his eldest son Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus, became joint Augusti in October AD253 and were to rule the empire until June 260 when Valerian was captured by the Persian potentate Shapur, later dying in captivity. Gallienus continued as sole emperor until his murder outside Milan in September 268.
2. Desticius Juba was governor of Britain around AD256-258.
3. Regarding the roles of legatus and praefectus. The Legionary Prefect was the military commander of a legion, a professional-soldier of equestrian rank at the apex of his military career, who had earlier commanded auxiliary cohorts and had served in the legions as a tribunus militum. However, a Legionary Legate was merely the nominal commander of a legion, a man of senatorial rank often related to or a client of the pro-praetorian governor, who assumed command on a temporary basis in order to carry out the specific orders of this senior official, who was himself a legatus Augusti a nominee of the Emperor, and acting on his behalf.

There are at least seventeen stones which attest the presence of Legio II Augusta at Caerleon, there is a dedicatory inscription to Mithras (RIB 322), an altar to Regina (RIB 324), five building inscriptions (RIB 326/7, 330/1, 334; vide supra), dating from the reign of Trajan (AD99/100) to that of Valerian and Gallienus (AD255-260), there are also nine tombstones of soldiers (RIB 357, 359-361, 363 & 365-368; vide infra) and another possible funerary inscription (RIB 385) attributable to men of the Second Legion including a damaged testament of a signifer of the legion (RIB 367; not shown).

1. Colonia Ulpia Traiana was a Roman colony on the Rhenus in the lands of the Cugerni tribe of Germania Inferior. The town now lies in the suburbs of Xanten on the south-west bank of the Rhine in West Germany, close to the border with the Netherlands.
2. Lugdunum was the city after which the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis was named, the birth-place of the emperor Claudius in 10BC, and centre of the thriving Samian pottery industries, the Roman town now lies many yards beneath the modern city streets of Lyons in southern France.

1. The literal title of the most experienced centurion in a legion who commanded the First Century of the First legionary Cohort. The title P[rimi]P[ilus] may equally be expanded to P[rae]P[ositus], literally 'the foremost', i.e. 'the one in charge', or even P[ro] P[ietate], 'out of loyalty'. There are a number of other options for this expansion - e.g. Praeses Provincae, Publicani Provincae or even Pater Patriae - but none more likely than the first of these suggestions. I have opted for Primipilus as the most logical option in view of the remaining text.
2. Very likely Colonia Nervia Glevensium (Gloucester), the former garrison town of the Second Legion.

The Gods of Roman Caerleon

Iupitter

1. Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus and his warped son Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Commodus Augustus. Marcus Aurelius ('the philosopher') had been adopted at the age of sixteen by Antoninus Pius in February 138 along with the like-named seven year-old son of his first chosen successor Lucius Ceionius Commodus. Marcus and Lucius Verus (as he was then known), became joint emperors upon Pius' death of natural causes in March 161, and ruled together without rancour until Verus' death after suffering a stroke in February 169. Marcus had elevated his own five year-old son Commodus to the rank of Caesar in 166, and he was made joint Augustus in 177. After becoming sole ruler on his father's death of natural causes in March 180, he was strangled at Rome in December 192 after spending a depraved twelve years as head of the Roman State.

Fourteen altarstones and votive texts to various gods have been recovered from the environs of the Caerleon fortress. The texts of all these stones are shown somewhere on this page. The deity with the most dedications is Jupiter who has three altarstones; one dedicated to I O M Dolichenus (RIB 320 supra), one which can be dated to the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus (Brit. 1970.1, dated: AD177-180; atque supra), and another which reads simply I O M or "[to/for] Iuppiter Optimus Maximus" (RIB 319). The only other deity mentioned on more than one stone is the goddess Fortuna with two inscriptions, one dedicated by a Prefectus Castrorum (RIB 317 infra) and another shared with Bona Eventui (RIB 318 etiam infra).

Fortuna

1. Unlike the goddess Fortuna whose sphere of influence extended over all human activities and fields of endeavour, the divine powers of the god Bonus Aventus, whose name means 'a good outcome', were limited to specific events only.

1. The praefectus castrorum was the quartermaster of the entire legion, through whom all stores and purchases must be approved, his job was concerned with the actual logistics of running a legion of five and a half thousand men. The post was filled from among the former primipili, the most experienced centurions in the legion, and they were awarded equestrian status upon serving their term of service, which then theoretically enabled them to command their own auxiliary regiment as a military tribune.

Other Altarstones and Votive Objects to the Gods

There are also a number of deities which are mentioned only on single votive texts. There is an inscribed stone recording the restoration of a temple to Diana (RIB 316), an inscribed statuette of Mercury (RIB 321), a stone votive text dedicated to Mithras (RIB 322), a lead plate dedicated to Nemesis (RIB 323), an altarstone to the goddess Regina (RIB 324), an altar to the Spirit of the Emperor (Brit. 1977.16), and another stone bearing the simple text TERMIN "to/for Terminus" (RIB 325), evidently dedicated to the Roman god of boundaries and limits, whose festivals, the Terminalia, were observed at Rome each February. In addition, there are another two altarstones dedicated to unknown gods (RIB 332, dated: AD180-192; RIB 329; uterque vide infra).

1. The title Vir Clarissimus means literally 'a man of distinction'.

1. I admit that this reading may be a bit dodgy!

1. The goddess Nemesis was the Roman deity of just retribution.
2. The palla was a rectangular cloak worn by Roman women. The gallica was the standard double-soled Gallic sandal worn by most Roman civilians, although here the plural diminutive galliculae implies a smaller form possibly worn by women or children.

1. Regina is a known surname of the goddess Juno, who had a temple on the Aventine at Rome. These initial words may also be translated "for the health of the Queen", but this cannot be reconciled with any known suitable figure in either Roman or Romano-British history.

1. The secondary inscription on this stone is dedicated to the megalomaniacal emperor Commodus, whose sole rule of the Roman empire began in March AD180 upon the death of his father Marcus Aurelius ('the philosopher'), and ended in December 192 when the 'Gladiator Emperor' was poisoned by his wife Marcia and finally strangled by a young athlete named Narcissus. The senate later decreed that his body be exhumed and dragged through the streets of Rome, but this order was thwarted by the emperor Pertinax who instead had his remains removed to the Mausoleum of Hadrian.

Caerleon - The Fortress of the Legion

1. The emperor Septimius Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta. For further information see the notes for RIB 326 above.

Situated on the south-western edge of the modern town of Caerleon in Gwent, the Isca Silurum legionary fortress had a standard, playing-card outline measuring 1,600 by 1,350 feet (c.490x410 metres) and encloses an area within the defences of some 50 acres (21ha), easily large enough to house a fully-manned legion of between five and six thousand men. The defences of the fortress are aligned towards the north-west, which implies that the most significant threat was expected to come from that quarter.

Plan of Isca Silurum (from Webster, fig.33)

The original Flavian timber fortress was built sometime between AD70 to 80, which may place the foundation during the campaigns of governor Sextus Julius Frontinus in 74-75. It was certainly built by the men of Legio II Augusta, who continued to garrison the fortress until the mid-fourth century. An inscription of Trajan gives us a fairly precise dating for the replacement of the fortress walls to AD99/100, when the original earth and timber ramparts of the fortress were strengthened by the addition of a stone revetment at the front. Defences of this "composite" rampart consisted of a stone wall 5 to 5½ feet thick, backed by a clay bank and fronted by a single ditch.

1. Marcus Clodius Pupienus Maximus was consul for the second time with Sulla Urbanus his junior colleague in the year AD234, a.u.c.987.

Between AD140 and 200 occupation evidence is slight, and it has been suggested that most of Legio II Augusta was away in Scotland during this period. The fortress was damaged c.196/7, but by the turn of the third century the legion was evidently back in residence, an inscription records repairs made c.197-211 and another records that the barracks were rebuilt in stone during 259. The coin sequence in the fortress stops in 296, coincident with the period when the legionary fortress at York was rebuilt, and it seems that Caerleon was abandoned at this time, the Legion perhaps moving for a short while to garrison the Coastal Fortress at Cardiff - which had just been rebuilt - before being relocated to Rutupiae on the coast of Cantium.

During excavations at Caerleon over the years a number of animal bones have been uncovered, including those of domesticated Ox, Sheep, Goat, and Pig, also game animals such as Red Deer, Roe Deer, Boar and Hare, and even those of Fox and Wolf; the latter animals very likely being hunted and killed for sport and as a means of pest control. In addition, the soldiers' diet was supplemented by seawater molluscs including Oyster, Mussel, Limpet and Cockle.

1. I have preferred the expansion P[assuus] 'paces', to P[edes] 'feet'. There were five pedes (sing. pes) to each passus. Paces are more often used for the measurement of roads, also for linear barriers such as the Walls of Hadrian and Antonine in northern Britain, whereas pedes were more often used in the smaller distances involved within defensive structures.

The Builders of the Legionary Fortress

1. Presumably of the fortress rampart. See also, note for RIB 395 below.
2. The rank of hastatus prior was the fifth (out of six) in seniority within an ordinary cohort (see the Military Glossary).

The Military Amphitheatre

A large amphitheatre built c.AD80 could hold six thousand people within its wooden superstructure, and was probably used for parades, displays and exercises by the garrison of the fortress as well as for the usual gladiatorial entertainments. This (Period I) building was destroyed by fire in the early-second century, and the second (Period II) building erected c.AD138 was destroyed around sixty years later c.196/7. It was rebuilt for the third and last time during the campaigns of Severus and Caracalla in Britain c.197-211. The Period III building finally fell into disuse around the middle of the fourth century at the same time that the Caerleon fortress was evacuated. The latest coin from the site is that of Valens (AD364-378).

Beside the River Usk was a massive quay which could accomodate ships with a draught of up to five feet (1.6 metres) at high tide. Nearby, the large baths complex with a swimming pool was still in use in c.AD345 when final rebuilding took place. Repairs to the local road network outside the fortress was last carried out c.301-306.

Building Inscription Recording the Govenorship of Desticius Juba

1. Imperator Caesar Publius Licinius Valerianus Pius Felix Invictus Augustus (Valerian) and his elder son Imperator Caesar Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus Pius Felix Invictus Augustus (Gallienus) were joint emperors from October AD253 until Valerian's death in June 260, whereupon Galleinus became sole emperor. Valerians younger son, also named Publius Licinius Valerianus, was given the rank of Caesar in 256 and died early in 258; the stone must date somewhere in this latter period.
2. Governor Desticius Juba administered Britain between AD256 and 258.

A Selection of Tombstones from Roman Caerleon

Aside from those tombstones with undamaged or restorable funerary inscriptions shown and translated here, there are another fourteen damaged stones, none of which are shown.

See: The Romans in Britain An anthology of Inscriptions by A.R. Burn (Oxford 1932);
The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965);
Britannia i (1970) pp.272/3 & p.305 no.1;
The Roman Military Diet by R.W. Davies, in Britannia ii (1971) pp.122-142;
Britannia viii (1977) pp.429-30 no.16;
De Exidio Britonum by Gildas, translated by Michael Winterbottom (Phillimore, London, 1978);
The Roman Imperial Army by Graham Webster (Constable, London, 1979);
Chronology of the Ancient World by E.J. Bickerman (Thames & Hudson, London, 1980);
Chronicle of the Roman Emperors by Chris Scarre (Thames & Hudson, London, 1995);
Except where noted, all translations, including any inherent mistakes, are my own.

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