BURRIUM
(Usk) Monmouthshire, Wales.
Founded as a legionary fortress ca. A.D. 55, 18 km from
the estuary of the river Usk, it was demolished and replaced by a smaller auxiliary fort ca. A.D. 75. This fort
was dismantled early in the 2d c. A.D. when an extensive
civil settlement grew up on the site and continued until
the 4th c.
The existing evidence suggests that it was constructed by the Legio XX Valeria as a main base for the
early Neronian campaigns of Quintus Veranius (A.D. 57-58) and Suetonius Paulinus (A.D. 58-61) against the
Silures (Tac.
Ann. 14.29). Its actual construction, however, may be the work of their predecessor, Didius Gallus, governor in A.D. 52-57. The site is of great strategic importance: it commands the Usk valley, which leads
from the coastal lowlands into the mountains of S Wales,
at a point where it is joined by a supply road from England running along the Olway valley.
Excavations and magnetometer surveys in 1965-74
have revealed the line of the defenses on the N, E, and S
sides, showing that the fortress covered an area in excess
of 18.75 ha. If the plan is assumed to be symmetrical the
full size would be ca. 21.25 ha. The defenses were of
earth and timber with a single ditch except on the S side
where it was doubled. At intervals of ca. 100 Roman
feet were timber towers. The E gate, excavated in 1971,
had a double carriageway flanked by twin towers and
approached by a timber bridge across the ditch. With
the exception of the bath all the known buildings are of
timber, including 13 granaries and a series of large works
or stores compounds set on the N side of the via principalis.
The site, constricted by rivers and hills, is subject to
sudden, severe flooding which makes it unsuitable for a
permanent fortress. Accordingly, in ca. A.D. 75 when the
conquest of S Wales was completed and the strategic
importance of Burrium lessened, the buildings were demolished and the fortress closed, to be replaced by a
new foundation at Isca (Caerleon) 11 km downstream
near the estuary of the Usk. The smaller fort which was
then built at Usk appears to have been an auxiliary fort
of the type found throughout Wales in the early Flavian
period. It was demolished at the beginning of the 2d c.
A.D. The civil settlement that occupied the site in the
2d-3d c. A.D. was an lmportant center of iron production
and may have served as a works depot for the Legio II
Augusta stationed at Isca (Caerleon). Excavations are in
progress.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. T. Watkin, “On the Roman Stations ‘Burrium,’ ‘Gobannium,’ and ‘Blestium’ of the XII and XIII Iters of Antoninus,”
ArchJ 35 (1878) 19-43;
W. H. Manning, “Usk,” in V. E. Nash-Williams,
The
Roman Frontier in Wales (2d ed. by M. G. Jarrett,
1969).
W. H. MANNING
