CASTELL COLLEN
Wales.
This Roman auxiliary fort in E central Wales is unknown to history, and
its Roman name is lost, but excavation has revealed that
it played a recurrent role on the W limes from its foundation ca. A.D. 75-78 until the 4th c.
The fort was in a characteristic position on a low
knoll within a great bend of the river leithon, just off
the supposed line of the N-S military road which formed
the E boundary of the Welsh limes. About 2.5 km S of
the fort is a major group of practice-camps. The visible
remains are those of the bank and ditch of a fort ca. 125
m square, capable of holding a cohors quingenaria peditata, but this is known to have replaced an original fort
of ca. 170 x 125 m; this, with twice the troop accommodation, would have been suitable for a cohors milliaria peditata. Traces of the masonry administrative buildings—principia, praetorium and horreum—are also to
be seen in a dilapidated condition. The barracks and
other buildings were, however, always of wood.
Minor excavations were carried out in 19 11 and 1913,
and more sustained excavations in 1954-57. These demonstrated a complex pattern of building, abandonment,
and reoccupation. Actual dating evidence is not abundant, but the following sequence has been suggested. I,
milliary fort with turf and timber defenses, ca. A.D.
75-78. II, defenses and gates rebuilt in stone; portae
praetoria et principales had projecting semicircular gate-towers, the earliest known in Britain in a military context;
Antonine. III, retentura abandoned and its rampart
razed, new quingenary fort enclosing original administrative block and praetentura; Severan. IV, rampart
and gates refurbished, ditch recut to a wide profile
perhaps for artillery defense; late 3d or 4th c. Periods
of abandonment, inferred from the collapse of the rampart, intervened between these building-phases. Nothing
is known of the history of the internal buildings, but the
single horreum would be appropriate to the reduced
fort. Externally, a large bath house was explored in
1955-57. It was distinguished by a large basilica, for
drill or exercise, in place of the customary changing-room. Its development ran parallel with that of the fort
itself.
Among the finds now in the museum at Llandrindod
Wells, Radnorshire, the most important is part of an
Antonine building inscription ornamented with peltae
terminating in griffins' heads. Apart from its artistic
interest, this reveals that the building work of phase II
was carried out by a vexillation of Legio II Augusta.
There is no evidence to show what unit or units were
stationed at Castell Collen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Alcock, “The defences and gates of
Castell Collen auxiliary fort,”
Archaeologia Cambrensis
113 (1964) 64-96
PI; F. H. Thompson, “The zoomorphic
pelta in Romano-British art,”
AnJ 48 (1968) 47-58;
V. E. Nash-Williams,
The Roman Frontier in Wales
(rev. 1969)
MP.
L. ALCOCK
