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CAERLEON

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 937 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CAERLEON , an See also:

ancient See also:village in the See also:southern See also:parliamentary See also:division of See also:Monmouthshire, See also:England, on the right (See also:west) See also:bank of the See also:Usk, 3 M. N.E. of See also:Newport. Pop. (1901) 1411. Its claim to See also:notice rests on its See also:Roman and See also:British associations. As Isca Silurum, it was one of the three See also:great legionary fortresses of Roman See also:Britain, established either about A.D. 50 (See also:Tacitus, See also:Annals, xii. 32), or perhaps, as See also:coin-finds suggest, about A.D. 74–78 in the governorship of See also:Julius See also:Frontinus, and in either See also:case intended to coerce the See also:wild See also:Silures. It was garrisoned by the Legio II. See also:Augusta from its See also:foundation till near the end of the Roman See also:rule in Britain. Though never seriously excavated, it See also:CAERPHILLY 937 contains plentiful visible traces of its Roman period—part of the ramparts', the site of an See also:amphitheatre, and many See also:inscriptions, sculptured stones, &c., in the See also:local museum.

No See also:

civil See also:life or See also:municipality seems, however, to have grown up outside its walls, as at See also:York (See also:Eburacum). Like See also:Chester (see See also:DEVA), it remained purely military, and the See also:common notion that it was the seat of a See also:Christian bishopric in the 4th See also:century is unproved and improbable. Its later See also:history is obscure. We do not know when the See also:legion was finally withdrawn, nor what succeeded. But Welsh See also:legend has made the site very famous with tales of See also:Arthur (revived by See also:Tennyson in his Idylls), of Christian martyrs, See also:Aaron and Julius, and of an archbishopric held by St Dubric and shifted to St See also:David's in the 6th century. Most of these traditions date from See also:Geoffrey of See also:Monmouth (about 1130-1140), and must not be taken for history. The ruins of Caerleon attracted notice in the 12th and following centuries, and gave See also:plain cause for legend-making. There is better, but still slender, See also:reason for the belief that it was here, and not at Chester, that five See also:kings of the Cymry rowed See also:Edgar in a See also:barge as a sign of his See also:sovereignty (A.D. 973). The name Caerleon seems to be derived from the Latin Castra legionum, but it is not See also:peculiar to Caerleonon-Usk, being often used of Chester and occasionally of See also:Leicester and one or two other places. (F. J.

End of Article: CAERLEON

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