Isca Augusta: here is the ancient fort used by the Roman legions in Wales

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Isca Augusta: here is the ancient fort used by the Roman legions in Wales
Isca Augusta: Here Is The Ancient Fort Used By The

Isca Augusta: here is the ancient fort used by the Roman legions in Wales

Isca Augusta, also called Isca Silurum, is an ancient Roman fort in present day South Wales. It stood under the current Caerlon (which in Welsh means “strong of the legions”) and hosted, starting from 75 AD, the Legion II Augusta – following the conquest of South Wales under the Empire of Domitian.

When Sesto Giulio Frontino he was sent to Britain with the title of governor of the island, between 74-78 AD, subdued various indigenous Celtic populations. Among these included the Torpedoes he Ordovici, two powerful and warlike tribes that had fiercely opposed the Romans’ first attempts to conquer the region of Wales.

The resistance of these societies lasted four years and the Roman governor had to build forts to be able to bend the persistent resistance and consolidate the classic Roman administration for the whole province. For this reason, the strategic Isca Silurum was built, the main headquarters of the Legion II Augusta.

The term “isca“comes from the British and means”water“. It does referred to the River Usk (South East Wales); “Augusta” or “Silurum”, as you can imagine, were titles that derive from the two main characteristics of the fort: being the main place of rest and supply of the Legion II Augusta and being in the middle of the territory of Celtic enemies.

When it was built, Isca Augusta it was a simple wooden fort with perpendicular streets. Only a short time later, buildings of basic necessity began to be erected, such as: a headquarters (which the Romans called principia), a military tribune and a hospital for the wounded.

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They were not lacking, however, either spaces dedicated mainly to well-being and to the residence of officers and soldiers, for example: spas, shops, granaries and even an oval-shaped amphitheater. In particular the latter was, in the following centuries, called by local folklore as “The round table of King Arthur“.

Today it is counted that Isca Silurum extended for 20.23 hectares of land. After all, it must be considered that this place came to accommodate up to 5,000 soldiers.

The Legion II Augusta, in fact, had been enlisted in 43 BC and remained in service until the fourth century AD. His position was never entirely stable: at the beginning he fought in the Battle of Philippi (Macedonia) and in Italy; later, it became decisive for Spain and the Roman dominion in the Iberian Peninsula; a series of fundamental battles followed in some areas of modern-day Germany and, in the end, the emperor Claudius, in 43 AD, decided to send the legion, along with three others, towards the conquest of Britain.

Since then the soldiers remained in the British Isles and it is thought that it was they who contributed to the construction of another great testimony of the Roman presence in today’s United Kingdom: the Hadrian’s Wall, built in 122 AD and which we talked about in this news.

At Isca Augusta they followed periods of major flowering and periods of semi-abandonment, testified, for example, by the same multi-layered structure in the walls of the amphitheater. Only around the fourth century, coinciding with the slow disappearance of the Legion II Augusta from administrative documents, many structures of the fortress began to be destroyed by the usurpers Carausius and Allecto (both military men who proclaimed themselves emperors of Britain and northern Gaul in the late antique period).

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Some buildings, such as the baths, were used by a small part of the population and very few members of the army until 380. Around 395, however, according to Notitia dignitatum, the prefect of the Legion II Augusta became commander of Rutupiae, another Roman settlement corresponding to today Richborough – leaving, forever, the centuries-old control post in Wales.