Welsh Journals

Roman Pembrokeshire A Personal View by John Roche To many the use of the term Roman Pembrokeshire is a misnomer. The accepted view is that Pembrokeshire was never properly incorporated within the Roman Empire. This view is primarily based upon the fact that west of Carmarthen, Roman Moridunum, there is scant evidence of Roman building or occupation.1 It will be the purpose of this paper to argue against the accepted wisdom and to suggest that the Roman province of Brittania extended fully from Dover in the east to Milford Haven in the west. The Roman town of Moridunum is now generally accepted to have been the civitas capital of the Demetae,2 whose territory incorporated modern Pembrokeshire and most of Carmarthenshire.3 It is important to put aside modern notions of county boundaries when considering Moridunum. The town was a civitas capital, that is a centre for the whole tribe, not just the Carmarthenshire area but Pembrokeshire also. That Moridunum was a major centre is shown by the discovery of a large amphitheatre outside the east gate of the town. The amphitheatre may have been capable of holding 5,000 spectators. It has been pointed out that such an amphitheatre would have provided accommodation for a town on the same scale as Roman Cirencester.4 Carmarthen then was a major centre and was placed at a site accessible to all areas of the tribal territory, Pembrokeshire included. Given the possible trading links outlined below and given the town's capacity to accommodate visitors in some considerable numbers within its amphitheatre, it seems reasonable to suggest that Moridunum was every bit as much a town for Pembrokeshire as it was for Carmarthenshire and that it lies today outside the boundaries of Pembrokeshire is a mere accident of fate. In short, Pembrokeshire had a major Roman town Moridunum. That a Roman military presence may have extended westwards towards Pembrokeshire is suggested by coin finds and by rectilinear crop marks in the Whitland area. Within the modern boundaries of Pembrokeshire itself, the evidence for the Roman presence is becoming compelling. Until recently, the evidence had been limited to a few chance finds and could have been dismissed as mere items of curiosity, peripheral to the mainstream of the Roman Empire. However, even