CAERLEON, the īsca Silurum of the Romans, is situated upon the right bank of the river Usk, about 3½ miles N. of Newport in Monmouthshire. Its name appears to be a corruption of the Latin Castrum Legionis, and there can be no doubt that the place was the station of the second Augustan legion, and ranked as a colony and capital of Britannia Secunda in the period of Roman dominion. The existing remains of ancient Caerleon still in situ are unimportant, consisting only of fragments of the city walls and a grass-grown amphitheatre (comprising an area of 222 feet by 192 feet), in which the tiers of seats are indistinctly visible. The hamlet on the opposite bank of the river preserves its Roman name of Ultra Pontem, and it is probable that the connecting bridge was a pontoon similar in character to that which survived to the close of the last century. The local museum is rich in objects of interest, collected (chiefly through the zeal of Mr J. E. Lee, the author of Isca Silurum), either in Caerleon or its immediate neighbourhood. It includes a tesselated pavement of much beauty brought from Caerwent, four Tuscan pillars which are thought to have supported a temple of Diana, a large number of inscribed and sepulchral stones, a series of coins from the time of Otho to that of Honorius, stone coffins, amphoroe, antefixa, amulets, enamels, and Samian ware Of home and foreign manufacture. It is remarkable that on two inscriptions the name of G eta (the younger son of Severus) has been mutilated and partially effaced—evidence of the hatred in which the civil governor was held by his brother Caracalla. In the recent restoration of the Parish church (in style Early English, with traces of rude Norman) a good deal of Roman masonry was brought to light, and upon the hill side, ...which formed the burial place of the ancient city, fragments of urns and memorial slabs are even now often exhumed. Enough has been discovered to prove that Caerleon was a place of great importance in Roman times, but not enough to support the hyperbolical language of Giraldus Cambrensis (borrowed from Geoffrey of Monmouth) that its “splendid palaces, with their gilded roofs, once emulated the grandeur of Rome” (bk. ix. c. 12).
Although the chief historic interest attaching to Caerleon is derived from the impress left upon it by Roman occupation, it has also a less substantial claim to notice in connection with the romance of Arthur and the Round Table. It was hither the “blameless king” came at Pentecost to b3 crowned, and made high festival with the chieftains from Lothian and Orkney, from Gower and Carados. Here, too, if we follow the laureate’s version, Arthur took counsel with “Dubric, the high saint” and Guinevere climbed—
“The giant tower, from whose high crest, they say, Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset, And white sails flying on the yellow sea.”
{Idylls of the King, Enid.)
The lofty mound upon which this tower is said to have stood is close to the Roman amphitheatre, to which the name of Arthur’s Round Table has been given. The tumulus is evidently artificial, and may perhaps have supported the keep of the castle mentioned in Domesday, the ruins of which, now limited to a solitary bastion on the river side, were very extensive even in Leland’s time.
The grantee of Caerieon at the Norman Conquest was William de Scohies, and the lordship was subsequently enjoyed by the Crown and the great families of Clare and Mortimer. From the latter it devolved to King Edward IV., and in later times has been held by the Morgans of Llantarnam and the Howes, Lords Chedworth. The chief proprietor at the present time is Sir Digby Mackworth, Bart.
The ecclesiastical history of Caerleon reaches back to the first introduction of Christianity into Britain, when it was constituted the seat of an archbishopric. It sent a representative to the councils of Sardis (347 a.d.) and Rimini (359); and in the persecution of Diocletian during the previous century two of its citizens, Aaron and Julius, are said to have suffered martyrdom. The see was transferred to St David’s in the 11 th century, and at the present time Caerleon is included within the diocese of Llandaff. Some remains of a Cistercian priory may still be traced, but even the memory of Dubricius, the stout opponent of the Pelagian heresy, has perished with his dwelling-place. (c. J. K.)
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