Welsh Journals

MILITARY ASPECTS OF ROMAN WALES.' By PROFESSOR F. HAVERFIELD, M.A., LL.D. I. [PREFATORY NoTE.-¾This article attempts to describe in some detail the Roman military remains in Wales, and to ascertain a part, at least, of their hitherto neglected history. It is based on a study of the inscriptions, and on many visits to Roman sites in Wales and to Welsh museums or private collections of Roman objects. Several of these visits were made in company with Professor Bosanquet, who, from his vantage-ground in Liverpool, has set on foot the methodical exploration of Early Wales. In examin- ing the literature of my subject, and in gaining knowledge of several sites, I have been greatly aided by the co-operation of Miss M. V. Taylor. I have also to thank the Ordnance Survey authorities for letting me see some of their papers at Southampton, and I have received much other help, which is, I hope, duly ac- knowledged below. The article is printed much as it was read in 1909, but with a few obvious additions.] THE study of Roman Wales, as the phrase implies, has an interest for two classes of persons-those who care about Roman things and those who care about Wales. Un- fortunately, each of these two classes is liable to be affected by influences unfavourable to the proper consideration of the subject. The gaze of the Roman historian is concen- trated on the lands around the Mediterranean. Wales to him is a far-off fragment of the Empire, small, sterile, mountainous, remote from the main channels of Imperial life, near neighbour to the untravelled western seas. There are other districts on the Atlantic seaboard of the Empire which played little part in the politics, the trade, the intellectual activities of the Roman world; such were the 1 Read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion at 20, Hanover Square, on Thursday, 18 March 1909. Chairman, Principal Sir John Rhys, M.A., D.Litt.