CAERSWS
(“Mediolanum”) Montgomeryshire, Wales.
Roman military center in the upper Severn
valley, pivot of the road system controlling central
Wales. The
Ravenna Cosmography implies that its name
was Mediolanum (place in the middle of the plain), a
suitable description. The importance of the site is shown
by the size of the successive forts based there. The first
of these has recently been located on a low hill 1 km E
of the present village. Over 3.6 ha in size, it is by implication pre-Flavian in date. This is because the second
fort, long known to lie at the N end of the village, has
produced evidence of continuous occupation from A.D.
75 when Wales was finally subjugated. The 2.8 ha fort
platform can readily be recognized and is comparable in
size to other large sites like the Forden Gaer and the
Brecon Gaer.
A considerable vicus extended beneath the modern
village to the S. A bath house lies beneath the present
railway line to the W. Excavations early in this century
showed that the central range of buildings in the later
occupation were built of stone, while the barracks were
of timber. Recent excavation showed that the defenses
were of three periods. The original Flavian rampart was
widened at the end of the 1st c. and did not receive a
stone revetment until the middle of the 2d c.; all these
changes are associated with rebuilding in the interior.
The praetorium was enhanced by the addition of three
rooms with hypocausts in the 3d c., and indications of
continued occupation in the 4th c. have been found in
both the central range and the vicus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. N. Pryce,
Montgomeryshire Collections 46 (1940) 67ff; C. M. Daniels et al., “Excavations
at Caersws,” ibid. 59 (1965) 112; 60 (1966) 1ff
I; G.D.B.
Jones,
The Roman Frontier in Wales (1969) 66ff
MP.
G.D.B. JONES
