Welsh Journals

town. But before discussing the problem, and for a clearer understanding of it, it is necessary to give briefly an account of the influences which prevailed in the neighbourhood at different periods of early historical time and affected the complexion of its place-names. ROMAN PERIOD. From archaeological evidence Cardiff is known to be the site of a Roman station, though its Roman name has not come down to us. Recent excavation points to the site being inhabited in the first century A.D., its occupation being military in character, probably dependent on the legionary fortress at Caerleon. The Roman Empire was held together by its roads, and the position of Cardiff, on the River Taff in the middle of the great sheltered plain between the Rhymny and the Ely rivers, made it a suitable site for one of the many forts built at strategic points throughout Wales in the early days of the Roman occupation. It had but two gates, a north and a south, the latter leading to the navigable part of the river, and it may well be that its function was primarily to establish and preserve sea communication for the forts lying further north rather than to guard the ford of the Taff. In this respect it bears some analogy to Porchester, built to protect the Saxon shore in the last phase of the Roman occupation. It appears to have been reconstructed and enlarged about the end of the third century, when much thicker walls were built and bastions added-possibly in connection with Goidelic migrations which were taking place from Ireland to South Wales at that period. The evidence of coins shows the site still occupied towards the end of the fourth century, and it may have persisted some time longer, but of its abandonment nothing is known. Apart from the military establishment there is nothing to show a settlement at Cardiff in Roman times. Extensive operations in the rebuilding of the town in the last half century or more have revealed nothing outside the walls of