LLANIO
Cardiganshire, Wales.
The fort at
Llanio, often assumed (without good cause) to be the
Bremia of the
Ravenna Cosmography, lies on a terrace
above the W bank of the river Teifi, some 12 km N of
Lampeter. It was linked by road to the fort at Trawscoed to the N and to Dolaucothi and Llandovery to the
E. A road to Carmarthen has been postulated but not
proved.
Recent excavations have revealed three periods of
timber barracks in the interior, with a stone principia.
In the last phase of occupation a ditch cut across the
site of the principia, perhaps marking the reduction of
Llanio to a fortlet. The remains of the bath house are
still visible S of the fort, and a civil settlement enclosed
by a bank lay to the SW. No objects later than ca. A.D.
150 were found either here or in the fort, and copious
Flavian pottery indicates the foundation of the fort ca.
A.D. 75-85. Oak piles in the bed of the Teifi probably
mark the site of the bridge or ford by which the road
crossed the river. Two practice camps at Pant-teg Uchaf,
farther S, were presumably built by the garrison of
Llanio; at some stage this was Cohors II Asturum. The
finds will be deposited in the National Museum of Wales,
Cardiff.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. H. Davies, “The Romans in Cardiganshire,”
Ceredigion 4 (1960-63) 85-95; V. E. Nash-Williams,
The Roman Frontier in Wales (2d ed. by M. G.
Jarrett 1969) 97-98
MI.
M. G. JARRETT
