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Roman Flintshire By M. V. TAYLOR, M.A., with a Note on a Road from St. Asaph to Holywell By W. J. HEMP, F.S.A. 1. Introduction. 2. Occupied Sites-Ffrith, S. Asaph, Flint, Holywell. 3. Roads. 4. Topographical Index.1 1 .—INTRODUCTION. ROMAN Flintshire is a contradiction in terms, because the county only dates from mediaeval days yet it occupies a natural region lying between the valleys of the Dee and the Clwyd and the Clwydian hills, and in the first century A.D. the greater part of it was occupied by a tribe probably called the Deceangi or Deceangli.2 Even so, however, its history during the Roman period can be understood only when regarded as a fraction of the province Britannia and of the Empire at large. I My thanks are due to many who have assisted me with this article, but especially to my father and Mr. Hemp, and to Mr. Llewelyn E. Williams for drawing all the maps. It will be obvious how much I am indebted to the article on the Military Aspects of Roman Wales in the Cymmrodorion Society's Transactions 1908-9, by the late Professor Haverfield, the material for which I helped him to collect, as stated in his Prefatory Note to that article. 2 In Tacitus Annates, XII, 32, the Decangi or Ceangi are men- tioned; pigs of lead found in Cheshire and Staffordshire are inscribed DECEANGI or DECEANGL. which may be read de Ceangi[s] or Ceangl[is], or more probably Deceangi[cum] or Deceangl[icum~], plumbum being understood. The last seems the best reading and Deceangli connects better with Tegeingl, a district of Flintshire in which lead is found. This oantref extended from the Wepre brook to the Clwyd and formed the nucleus of the county created by Edward I. For the lead pigs, see below, p. 65 f.; for a discussion on the name see Sir J. Rhys Celtic Britain 1904, p. 295, and Academy, 31st Oct., 7th and 14th Nov., 1891, pp. 390, 413, 437. Catalogue of the Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (Chester Arch. Soc. Journ., VII), Nos. 196, 197, and Arch. Journ. XLIX, 222. For a still longer discussion see Arch. Cambrensis, 8th ser., 137 ff. For the extent of the cantref "Tegeingl" and its relation to "Englefield," see Flints. Hist. Soc. Trans., Til, 96, 93.